THI. 



EASTERN ORIGIN 



OK THE 



CELTIC NATIONS 



PROVED BY A COMPARISON OF 



tljetr Dialects 



WITH THE 



SANSKRIT, GREEK, LATIN, AND TEUTONIC 



FORMING A SUPPLEMENT TO RESEARCHES INTO THE 
PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MANKIND. 



BY 

JAMES COWLES PRICHARD, M. D. F.R.S.&c. 



OXFORD, 

PRINTED BY S. COLLINGWOOD, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY, 

FOR J. AND A. ARCH, CORNHILL, LONDON. 

MDCCCXXXI. 



i\Q 









I %*>l-\ 



v; 



TO 
THE REVEREND 

WILLIAM DANIEL CONYBEARE, A.M. F.R.S. &c. 

RECTOR OF SULLY, 
AND TO 

PROFESSOR JACOB GRIMM 

OF 
THE UNIVERSITY OF GOETTINGEN, 

THIS WORK IS INSCRIBED, 

IN TESTIMONY OF 

THE HIGH RESPECT AND REGARD 

OF 

THE AUTHOR. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



A HE treatise now laid before the public forms 
a Supplement to my " Researches into the Physical 
w History of Mankind," and was announced in the 
first edition of that work, which was printed in 
1813. Of the motives which induced me so long 
to withhold it, and of those which have at length 
determined me to the publication, a sufficient ac- 
count will be found in the Introduction ; and I have 
only a few words to premise on the circumstances 
and designation under which the work now ap- 
pears. 

It is termed, a Supplement to Researches into the 
Physical History of Mankind, because it was under- 
taken with the view of furnishing proofs of a series 
of facts, of which little more could be introduced into 
that work than general statements, containing the 
results of inquiries which had been sufficient for my 
own conviction. It forms, however, a distinct trea- 
tise, in exclusion of its reference to the history of 
nations or races of men; and it may be proper to re- 
mark, that some of the philological researches which 
it contains have been pursued into greater extent 
than the primary object of the work may seem to 
have required. If this is in one respect a fault, it 
may be hoped that contingent advantages in another 



vi ADVERTISEMENT. 

point of view will be found to atone for it. The exa- 
mination of cognate languages, while it points out 
their resemblances and proves the affinity of the races 
of men of which they formed the vernacular speech, 
seldom fails at the same time to elucidate, in a greater 
or less degree, the structure of the respective idioms 
themselves; and it will appear, if I am not mis- 
taken, that the relation of the Celtic dialects to the 
other languages brought into comparison with them, 
furnishes the means of throwing some light on the 
European idioms in general. I have followed the 
investigation which thus suggested itself, and have 
stated the results. If the latter are well establish- 
ed, they will be found both interesting by them- 
selves to the philologist, and will at the same time 
strongly confirm the principal inferences obtained 
in respect to the origin and mutual affinity of the 
European nations. 

As I have had occasion in several parts of this 
treatise to allude to the grammatical forms of some 
languages, with which I am but imperfectly ac- 
quainted, I have endeavoured to cite correctly the au- 
thorities on which I have depended for information. 
The names of various grammarians and other writers 
on philological subjects, with the designations of 
their works, will be found in the marginal references 
scattered through the following pages, and need not 
be mentioned in this place. But there are four 
living authors to whom in a more especial manner 
I am indebted, and am anxious to acknowledge 



ADVERTISEMENT. vii 

my obligation. These are Mr. H. H. Wilson, the 
learned secretary of the Asiatic Society, author 
of the Sanskrit dictionary, and Professors Bopp, 
Rosen, and Grimm, to whose well known works I 
have made throughout this essay frequent refer- 
ences. 



CONTENTS. 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION. 

Sect. I. Different opinions respecting the population of 
the world — Autochthones — Hypothesis of the ancients — 
Modern opinion — Way of investigating the subject — 
Physical evidence — Comparison of languages — How far 
this inquiry has tended to elucidate the history of nations 
— General relations and value of philological inquiries. 

Sect. II. Nations of Europe at the earliest periods of 
history — Eastern origin of several of them proved by 
their languages — Indo-European languages — Is the Celtic 
allied to them ? — Denied by several writers — Motives 
for the discussion of this question. 

Sect. III. Of the Celtic dialects extant — Modes of ortho- 
graphy — Authorities. 

CHAPTER I. 

Preliminary survey of the forms of words and the permuta- 
tions of letters. 

Sect. I. Introductory Remarks. 

Sect. II. Of the permutation of letters in composition 
and construction — Of Sandhi and Samasa in Sanskrit — 
Of the same principles as discovered in the Celtic dialects 
— in the Welsh — in the Erse — Of the digamma and sibi- 
lant in Greek. 

Sect. III. Of the interchange of particular letters between 
different languages — Table of numerals — Observations 
deduced from it. 

CHAPTER II. 

Further proofs and extension of the observations laid down 

in the preceding chapter. 
Sect. I. Introductory Remarks. 

b 



x CONTENTS. 

Sect. II. Of the interchange of palatine or guttural conso- 
nants with labials in the different languages. 

Sect. III. Of the interchange of sibilant and soft palatine 
consonants with gutturals or hard palatines. 

Sect. IV. Of the relations of the aspirate — Of the substi- 
tution of the aspirate in several languages for S and for 
F — Of the aspirate as a guttural or hard palatine. 

Sect. V. Of the interchange of dental and sibilant letters. 

Sect. VI. Of the substitution of R for S. 

Sect. VII. Of the relation of different vowels and diph- 
thongs to each other in different languages — Synoptical 
table of letters interchangeable between different lan- 
guages. 

CHAPTER III. 

Proofs of common origin in the vocabulary of the Celtic and 
other Indo-European languages. 

Sect. I. Names of persons and relations. 

Sect. II. Names of the principal elements of nature, and of 
the visible objects of the universe. 

Sect. III. Names of animals. 

Sect. IV. Verbal roots traced in the Celtic and other Indo- 
European languages. 

Sect. V. Adjectives, Pronouns, and Particles. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Proofs of a common origin derived from the grammatical 
structure of the Celtic and other Indo-European lan- 
guages. 

Sect. I. Review of the preceding facts and inferences. In- 
troductory remarks on the personal inflections of verbs. 

Sect. II. Personal endings of the Sanskrit verbs. 

Sect. III. Terminations characteristic of the persons of 
the Greek verb. 

Sect. IV. Personal endings of the Latin verbs. 

Sect. V. Terminations which distinguish the persons of 
verbs in the Teutonic dialects. 

Sect. VI. Personal endings of verbs in the Sclavonian dia- 
lects and in the Persian language. 



CONTENTS. xi 

Sect. VII. Terminations characterising the persons and 
numbers of verbs in the Celtic languages. 

CHAPTER V. 

Of the personal pronouns in the Indo-European languages, 
and of the derivation of the personal endings of verbs. 

Sect. I. Personal pronoun of the first person in the San- 
skrit, Greek, Latin, Russian, Mceso-Gothic, and Old 
High German languages. 

Sect. II. Pronoun of the second person. 

Sect. III. Pronoun of the third person. 

Sect. IV. General observations on the preceding facts. 

Sect. V. Of the Celtic pronouns. 

Par. 1. Of the entire personal pronouns in the Erse. 

Par. 2. Of the entire pronouns in the Welsh. 

Par. 3. Of the pronouns in a contracted state, or as used 

in regimen. 
Par. 4. Comparison of the personal endings of verbs 

with the contracted forms of the pronouns. 
Par. 5. General result of the foregoing analysis in re- 
spect to the personal inflections of verbs in the Celtic 
language. 

Sect. VI. Conclusions respecting the personal terminations 
of verbs in the other- Indo-European languages. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Of the inflections of Verbs through tenses and moods. 

Sect. I. General view of the subject. 

Sect. II. Modifications of verbs common to the Sanskrit 
and the Greek languages. 

Sect. III. Forms common to the Greek, Latin, and San- 
skrit. 

Sect. IV. Formation of the preterperfect tense in the 
Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and Teutonic verbs. 
Par. 1. Professor Jacob Grimm's analysis of the Teu- 
tonic verbs. 
Par. 2. Analysis of the preterperfect in the Greek and 
Sanskrit verbs. 



xii CONTENTS. 

Par. 3. Analysis of the preterperfect in Latin verbs. 
Sect. V. Of the remaining forms of the verb — Poten- 
tial, Optative, and Conjunctive moods — Future tenses — 
Middle and Passive voices. 

Par. 1. Potential moods — Professor Bopp's opinion. 
Par. 2. Future tenses — Formation of these tenses in 
Sanskrit, in Greek, in Latin — General remarks on Fu- 
ture and Past tenses. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Illustration of the principles developed in the preceding- 
chapter — Conjugations of the verb substantive and of at- 
tributive verbs, both in other Indo-European languages 
and in the Celtic dialects. 

Sect. I. General Remarks — Analysis of the verb substan- 
tive in several languages. 
Par. 1. Verb ^i \ ™ — asmi and its cognates. 
Par. 2. Verb M^i 1 1 *H — bhavami and its cognates — 
Conjugation of this verb through its various forms. 

Sect. II. Analysis of the Celtic verb substantive. 

Par. 1. Conjugation of bod or bydh, and comparison of 
its forms with those of the verb substantive in the San- 
skrit, Persian, and Sclavonic. 
Par. 2. Of defective verbs used as verbs substantive in 
the Celtic dialects. 

Sect. III. Inflection of regular verbs in Welsh analysed. 

Sect. IV. Conjugation of regular verbs in Erse. 

Sect. V. Concluding observations on the Celtic verbs with 
general remarks on the grammatical peculiarities of the 
Celtic languages. 

Sect. VI. General Inference, 



INTRODUCTION 



SECTION I. 

Different opinions respecting the population of the world — Au- 
tochthones — Hypothesis of the ancients — Modern opinion — 
Way of investigating the subject — Physical evidence — Com- 
parison of languages — How far this inquiry has tended to elu- 
cidate the history of nations — General relations and value 
of philological inquiries. 

IMaNY writers on natural history and geography 
have maintained the opinion that each particular 
region of the earth must have been supplied from 
the beginning, by a separate and distinct creation, 
with its peculiar stock of indigenous or native inha- 
bitants. Among the ancients this notion prevailed 
almost universally. There existed, indeed, in the 
pagan world an obscure tradition of a primitive pair 
fashioned out of clay by the hand of Prometheus or 
of Jupiter; but this belonged to mythology; which, 
in its literal sense, at least, was of little authority 
with the best informed, and the frequent occurrence 
of such terms as autochthones, indigence, or abori- 
ginal inhabitants, whenever reference is made to the 
population of different countries, indicates a general 
prevalence of the ideas which such expressions are 
fitted to suggest. The prevailing opinion in modern 
times has referred all the nations of the earth to a 
common parentage ; and this it has done chiefly, as 
it would appear, on the authority of our Sacred His- 
tory, the testimony of which seems hardly to be re- 

B 



2 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

conciled with a different hypothesis. Of late, how- 
ever, many learned men, chiefly on the continent, 
have been strongly inclined to adopt an opinion si- 
milar to that of the ancients ; and this seems now to 
be gaining proselytes among the French naturalists 
and physiologists, and among writers on history and 
antiquities in Germany. Some of the former speak 
of the Adamic race as of one among many distinct 
tribes. Von Humboldt, who has collected so many 
evidences of intercourse between the inhabitants of 
the eastern and western continents, yet seems to 
have regarded the primitive population of America as 
a distinct and peculiar stock. The celebrated geo- 
grapher Malte Brun has plainly taken it for granted 
that each part of the earth had indigenous inhabit- 
ants from the earliest times, into whose origin it is 
vain to make inquiries ; and even the accomplished 
Niebuhr, who is not more distinguished by the great 
extent of his learning than by the novelty and in- 
genuity of his critical speculations, has adopted a si- 
milar opinion in connexion with his researches into 
the early history of Italy a . 

It would be no difficult matter to cite names of 
equal celebrity on the other side of this question b , 
but it is not by the authority of opinions that it can 
ever be decided. The most learned men, and those 
of the most profound research, are equally liable 
with ordinary individuals to adopt erroneous notions 
on subjects which lie beyond a particular sphere ; 
they are perhaps even more disposed to prejudices 
of certain kinds. It is only by examining the evi- 

- a Romische Geschichte von N. G. Niebuhr. 1. Ausgab. Vor- 
rede, p. 38. b Sir W. Jones. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 8 

dence which may be drawn from a variety of dif- 
ferent sources, that those persons who feel interested 
in this inquiry can hope to arrive at a satisfactory 
conclusion. 

Perhaps those arguments which bear with the 
greatest weight upon this question, and on which 
the ultimate opinion of philosophers respecting it is 
to be determined, are considerations resulting from 
a survey of the natural history of the globe, and 
facts connected with physical geography, and with 
the multiplication and dispersion of species both of 
animals and plants. On the evidence which is to be 
deduced from these sources, I shall say nothing at 
present. I have endeavoured to take a comprehen- 
sive view of the whole of this subject in my Re- 
searches into the Physical History of Mankind. 

Among the investigations which belong exclu- 
sively to the history of our own species, an analysis 
of languages, affording the means of comparing their 
component materials and ascertaining their affinities 
and diversities, is one of the most important. 

It must be a matter of regret to those who are 
aware of the real value of this resource, that it has 
been applied with so little judgment, and that many 
writers who have devoted themselves to the study 
of what is termed pJiilology have mixed up so much 
that is extravagant and chimerical with the results 
of their researches, as not only to throw a shade of 
doubt and uncertainty over them, but even to bring 
ridicule and contempt upon the pursuits in which 
they have been engaged. A fondness for wild con- 
jecture and for building up systems upon the most 
inadequate and precarious foundations has been sup- 
posed to belong to the whole class of writers on the 

B 2 



4 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

history and affinities of languages, and it has cer- 
tainly prevailed in no ordinary degree among them. 
Even some of the latest works on these subjects, 
though abounding with curious and valuable infor- 
mation, are in a particular manner liable to this 
censure. The treatise of Professor Murray on the 
European languages, though it displays extensive 
knowledge and diligent research, is scarcely men- 
tioned without ridicule ; and in the Asia Polyglotta 
of M. Julius Klaproth, which has added very con- 
siderably to our acquaintance with the dialects and 
genealogy of the Asiatic races, we find the results of 
accurate investigation mixed up and blended with 
too much that is uncertain and hypothetical. It 
must, however, be allowed, that there are not a few 
writers, in both earlier and later times, who are 
scarcely, if in any degree, chargeable with the same 
faults, and whose acuteness and soundness of dis- 
cernment are equal to their extensive and profound 
erudition. This may be truly said of Vossius and 
Edward Lhuyd among the philologists of former 
ages, and in more recent times of Professor Vater, 
the Schlegels, Bopp, and Professor Jacob Grimm. 

The comparison of languages is perhaps incapable 
of affording all the results which some persons have 
anticipated from it. It would be too much to expect 
from this quarter to demonstrate the unity of race, 
or an original sameness of idiom in the whole hu- 
man species. But this resource, if properly applied, 
will furnish great and indispensable assistance in 
many particular inquiries relating to the history 
and affinity of nations. 

It would be easy to point out instances in which 
the examination of languages has rendered substan- 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 5 

tial and undoubted services to the historian. The 
history of the Goths, who conquered the Roman 
empire, will furnish an example. The real origin of 
this people could not have been known with cer- 
tainty, if we had not come into possession of an 
ample specimen of their language in the version of 
Ulphilas. By this we learn that they were not 
Getae or Thracians, as most of the writers who lived 
near to the era of the Gothic invasion supposed 
them to be, and as some modern historians have 
maintained, but, in conformity with their own tra- 
ditions, nearly allied in kindred to the northern 
tribes of the German family. 

The origin of the Polynesian races has been 
illustrated by an investigation in one respect simi- 
lar. Some of these tribes are found in islands so 
distant from all other inhabited regions, as to furnish 
an argument in favour of the opinion, that they had 
the beginning of their existence in their present 
abodes. But a comparison of their languages has 
furnished proof that all the most remote insular na- 
tions of the Great Ocean derived their origin from 
the same quarter, and are nearly related to some 
tribes of people inhabiting a part of the Indian con- 
tinent and the isles of the Indian archipelago. 

Even the history of the African and American 
tribes has been in many particulars elucidated by 
an inquiry into the relations of their languages, 
though the results which have been obtained have 
not proved to be precisely those which were hypo- 
thetically anticipated, and with hope of arriving at 
which these researches were in part undertaken. 

Philologists have sought in vain in the old con- 
tinent for a nation, from whose speech the diversified 

B 3 



G EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

idioms of America may with any degree of proba- 
bility be derived ; but an examination of the Ame- 
rican languages themselves has led to some interest- 
ing results. The native races of North America are 
referred by a classification of their dialects to a few 
great divisions, several of which extend as radii 
issuing from a common centre in the north-western 
part of the continent, where it is divided from 
Asia by Beh ring's Strait. The traditions prevalent 
among the ancient Mexicans seem to have derived 
credit from the discovery of a chain of nations ex- 
tending almost from New Mexico to Mount St. 
Elias, in the neighbourhood of the Esquimaux 
Tschugazzi ; their languages, particularly those of 
the Ugalyachmutzi and Koluschians, bearing a cu- 
rious analogy to that of the Aztecs and Tlaxcallans. 
Another series of nations, the Karalit, or Esqui- 
maux, connected by affinities of dialect, has been 
traced from the settlements of the Tschuktschi in 
Asia, along the polar zone to Acadia and Green- 
land. Light has also been thrown in a similar 
manner on the history of the Lenni Lenape, and 
the great kindred family of Algonquin nations, on 
that of the Iroquois, and likewise of the Floridian 
and other races of North America, by a comparison 
of their national traditions with the indications dis- 
covered in their dialects. One circumstance, which 
is perhaps of more importance than all the pre- 
ceding, is the singular congruity in structure be- 
tween all the American languages, from the northern 
to the southern extremity of the continent. To this 
I only allude at present, having already in another 
place surveyed the facts on which the observation is 
founded, as they have been developed by the re- 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 7 

searches of Barton, Hervas, Von Humboldt, Hecke- 
welder, and Duponceau. In Africa a remarkable 
and interesting fact was the discovery of a nation 
occupying nearly the whole northern region of that 
continent, to which the Kabyles of Mauritania and 
the Tuarik of the Great Desert belong, and whose 
branches extend from the Oasis of Siwah on the 
eastern, to the mountains of Atlas, and even to the 
Canary islands, on the western side ; the Guanches, 
the old inhabitants of those islands, whose remains 
are said to lie embalmed in the mummy caves of 
TenerifFe, spoke, as it appears, a dialect of the same 
language as the Kabyles and Berbers. The Fela- 
tahs, who have spread themselves over the interior 
countries of Nigritia, have been traced by a similar 
investigation to the mountainous districts above 
the Senegal, where the Foulahs, who speak the 
same language, have been long known to Europeans 
as a people in many respects distinguishable from 
the Negroes. To the southward of the equator a 
connexion still more extended has been discovered 
among the native tribes across the whole of the same 
continent from Caffraria and the Mosambique coast, 
on the Indian ocean, to the countries which border 
on the Atlantic, and form a part of the region 
termed the empire of Congo. 

I have thus pointed out some of the most striking 
instances, well known to those who have made phi- 
lological subjects their pursuit, in which researches 
of this kind have thrown some light on the origin 
and affinities of nations, when all other historical re- 
sources have failed. I shall presently consider the 
application of this inquiry to the European nations, 
as this is my principal object in the present work. 

B 4 



8 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

It is requisite, however, before I proceed so far, to 
make some general remarks on the evidence which 
languages appear to furnish in proof of the affinity 
of nations. 

The use of languages really cognate must be 
allowed to furnish a proof, or at least a strong pre- 
sumption, of kindred race. Exceptions may indeed, 
under very peculiar circumstances, occur to the in- 
ference founded on this ground. For example, the 
French language is likely to be the permanent idiom 
of the negro people of St. Domingo, though the 
latter are principally of African descent. Slaves im- 
ported from various districts in Africa, having no 
common idiom, have adopted that of their masters. 
But conquest, or even captivity, under different cir- 
cumstances, has scarcely ever exterminated the na- 
tive idiom of any people, unless after many ages of 
subjection, and even then vestiges have perhaps 
always remained of its existence. In Britain the 
native idiom was nowhere superseded by the Ro- 
man, though the island was held in subjection up- 
wards of three centuries. In Spain and in Gaul 
several centuries of Latin domination, and fifteen 
under German and other modern dynasties, have 
proved insufficient entirely to obliterate the ancient 
dialects, which were spoken by the native people be- 
fore the Roman conquest . Even the Gypsies, who 
have wandered in small companies over Europe for 
some ages, still preserve their original language in 
a form that can be everywhere recognised. 

But the question is here naturally suggested, 

c Without adverting to the Bas Breton, the Basque in Aqui- 
taine and the Biscayan in Spain afford proofs of the fact above 
asserted. 



- 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 9 

what degrees and species of resemblance must be 
considered as indicating any given languages to be 
cognate, or as constituting their affinity? In advert- 
ing to this inquiry I shall be allowed to repeat some 
remarks which I have made on a former occasion. 

A comparison of various languages displays four 
different relations between them. 

1. In comparing some languages we discover little 
or no analogy in their grammatical structure, but 
we trace, nevertheless, a resemblance more or less 
extensive in their vocabularies, or in the terms for 
particular objects, actions, and relations. If this 
correspondence is the result of commercial inter- 
course, or conquest, or the introduction of a new 
system of religion, literature, and manners, it will 
extend only to such words as belong to the new 
stock of ideas thus introduced, and will leave un- 
affected the great proportion of terms which are ex- 
pressive of more simple ideas and universal objects. 
Of the description now alluded to is the influence 
which the Arabic has exerted upon the idioms of 
the Persians and the Turks, and the Latin upon 
some of the dialects of Europe. But if the corre- 
spondence traced in the vocabularies of any two 
languages is so extensive as to involve words of the 
most simple and apparently primitive class, it ob- 
viously indicates a much more ancient and intimate 
connexion. There may be instances in which this 
sort of affinity is so near as to render it probable, 
that the dialects thus connected had a common 
origin, and owe the diversities of their grammatical 
forms to subsequent changes and difference of cul- 
ture. 

2. There are certain languages which have very 



10 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

few words in common, and which yet display, when 
carefully examined, a remarkable analogy in their 
laws of grammatical construction. 

The most striking instances of this relation are 
the poly synthetic idioms, as they are denominated 
by Mr. Duponceau, of the American tribes, and the 
monosyllabic languages of the Chinese and Indo- 
Chinese nations. 

3. A third relation is discovered between lan- 
guages which are shewn to be connected by both of 
the circumstances already pointed out. These are 
the languages which I venture to term cognate. 
The epithet is applied to all those dialects which 
are connected by analogy in grammatical forms, and 
by a considerable number of primitive words or 
roots common to all, or in all resembling, and ma- 
nifestly of the same origin. 

4. A fourth relation exists between languages in 
which neither of the connecting characters above 
described can be discerned ; when there is neither 
analogy of grammatical structure, nor any corre- 
spondence in words sufficient to indicate a particular 
affinity. Such languages are not of the same family, 
and they generally belong to nations remote from 
each other in descent, and often m physical cha- 
racters. But even among languages thus dis#£vered, 
a few common or resembling words may often be 
found. These resemblances are sometimes casual, 
or the result of mere accident : in other instances 
they are perhaps too striking and too numerous to 
be ascribed to chance or coincidence. Such are the 
phenomena of connexion which M. Klaproth hypo- 
thetically terms antediluvian, and those which Mr. 
Sharon Turner has lately pointed out between the 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 11 

idioms of nations very remote from each other. 
More strongly marked are the traces of approxima- 
tion observed by Professors Barton and Vater be- 
tween the vocabularies of tribes in North and even 
in South America, and the dialects of the Samoi- 
edes, Yukagers, and other races in North-eastern 
Asia. Such facts are sometimes difficult of explana- 
tion ; in other instances they may lead to interesting 
results. Whatever may be thought of them, the va- 
riety of languages, nearly or wholly unconnected, is 
on a general survey so great, that it seems difficult 
to avoid being led to one of two conclusions : either 
that there existed from the beginning divers idioms, 
or that the languages of mankind were rendered va- 
rious by a miraculous change, according to the most 
obvious import of a well known passage in the book 
of Genesis. It would be foreign to my present de- 
sign to consider these opinions more fully, and I shall 
pass them by with a single remark on each. The 
former, besides other objections, involves one which 
has scarcely been adverted to. It implies that the 
world contained from the beginning, not three or 
four, as some writers are willing to believe, but some 
hundreds and perhaps thousands of different human 
races d . With respect to the latter, it seems incum- 
bent on those who reject this passage of Sacred His- 
tory on the ground of its making a reference to a 

- d The languages of the African nations, according to Seetzen, 
who has made the most extensive and original researches into 
this subject, amount to ioo or 150. In America, there are said 
to be 1500 idioms " notabilmente diversi." Such was the opin- 
ion of Lopez, a missionary of great knowledge in the languages 
both of South and North America. (See Seetzen's letters in 
Von Zach's monathliche correspondenz. 1810. p. 3 28. and Her- 
vas's Catalogo delle Lingue, p. 11.) 



12 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

supernatural, and, as it may be termed, an unknown 
agency, to furnish us with some account of the first 
existence of our species which, does not imply events, 
at least equally miraculous. Unless the events which 
certainly took place can be understood in a different 
way from that in which the Sacred Scriptures repre- 
sent them, we may rationally adhere to the whole 
of the same testimony, as involving the operation of 
no other causes, than such as are both proved and 
are sufficient to account for the phenomena. 

In the inquiry on which I have now to enter, I 
must confine my view within a narrower sphere, and 
advert to the relations of languages which, though 
displaying great variety in their vocabulary, yet ap- 
proximate in their most essential constituents and are 
nearly connected in their grammatical formation. 
Such phenomena can only be explained on the suppo- 
sition that a different superstructure has been raised 
by different nations on a basis originally common. 
Tribes having a common idiom scanty in its stock of 
words, appear separately to have added to their speech, 
partly by new invention, and partly by borrowing 
from their neighbours, such terms as the progress of 
knowledge among them required. The accessory 
parts of languages may have come at length to 
bear a considerable proportion to the primitive one, 
or even to exceed it, and the grammatical structure 
may have been diversified under different modes of 
cultivation. Hence arise in the first place varieties of 
dialect ; but when the deviation is greater in degree, 
it constitutes diversity of language. The German 
and French are never termed dialects of one speech ; 
and yet all who compare their respective sources, the 
old Teutonic and the Latin languages, are aware that 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 13 

between these, a near and deeply rooted affinity sub- 
sists. 

Those who will duly weigh the facts which asso- 
ciate themselves with this last consideration, will, I 
believe, experience no difficulty in admitting all such 
languages to be cognate, which have in common, 
together with analogy in grammatical forms, a 
large number of undoubtedly original and primi- 
tive words. Such words are simple vocables, ex- 
pressive of the most natural and universal objects 
and ideas, terms for family relations and for the 
most striking objects of visible nature, as likewise 
verbal roots of the most frequent and general occur- 
rence. These are elements of language which must 
have belonged to every tribe of men in their origi- 
nal dispersion over the world, and which must have 
been the most tenaciously retained, and scarcely in- 
terchanged between different nations. When such 
elementary parts of speech are common to several 
languages, and when their grammatical structure 
displays likewise undoubted marks of a real and fun- 
damental affinity, we may be allowed to regard these 
languages as cognate, though the number of words 
peculiar to each may be very considerable. 

I have dwelt the more fully on this last consider- 
ation, because on it will depend the validity of the 
conclusions which I shall endeavour to draw in the 
course of the following treatise. I shall now advert 
particularly to the population of Europe and the 
history of the races of which it consists. 



14 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

SECTION II. 

Nations of Europe at the earliest periods of history — Eastern 
origin of several proved by their languages — Indo-European 
languages — Is the Celtic allied to them ? — Denied by several 
writers — Motives for the discussion of this question. 

At that era when the earliest dawning of history 
begins to dispel the mists which had hovered over 
the first ages of the world, we find the different 
races of people in Europe nearly in the same rela- 
tive situations which they now occupy, and we can 
discern scarcely a trace, even in the oldest memo- 
rials, of those wanderings of tribes which may be 
supposed to have filled this region of the world with 
inhabitants. In the remotest quarters of Europe, 
towards the setting sun, we are told by Herodotus, 
that the Celtae and Cynetae dwelt about the sources 
of the Ister and the city — perhaps rather the moun- 
tains — of Pyrene, and it is unknown during how 
many ages they had occupied the region thus de- 
scribed, before the father of history obtained these 
earliest notices of them. It would seem, however, 
that before the Trojan war even Britain must have 
had inhabitants, since tin was at that time in 
use, which was brought from Britain by Phoenician 
traders a . We know likewise that the Teutonic na- 
tions inhabited the northern countries of Europe at 
a period not long subsequent to the age of Hero- 
dotus. Pytheas, the navigator of Marseilles, who 
was nearly contemporary with Aristotle, is well 
known to have made a voyage of discovery towards 
the north beyond the pillars of Hercules, by far the 

a This at least would appear from the account given by He- 
rodotus of the Phoenician commerce. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 15 

most ancient that is recorded in that direction. In 
the course of this voyage he visited Britain, and 
even obtained some knowledge of Thule, or Iceland, 
and of the coast of the Baltic sea. Pytheas men- 
tions the Gnttones, who inhabited the shores of an 
estuary which must have been the mouth of the 
Vistula, and who carried on with their neighbours 
the Teutones a traffick in amber, a native production 
of their country b . The Teutones are well known 
under that name ; the Guttones are probably the 
Goths ; and thus we already discern in the north of 
Europe two of the most celebrated nations belong- 
ing to the Germanic family, in an age when even 
the name of Rome had scarcely become known to 
the Greeks. The Finns and the Sclavonians are 
generally supposed to have been the latest among 
the great nations who formed the population of Eu- 
rope. But Finningia and the Fenni are mentioned 
by Tacitus and Pliny, who place them beyond Ger- 
many and towards the Vistula. In the age of these 
writers the Finns were situated near the eastern 
parts of the Baltic, and had probably extended 
themselves already as far as those districts, where 
their descendants were known under the name of 
Beormahs or Biarmiers, in the times of Ohthere and 
St. Olaf. The Sclavonians, indeed, are not early 

b " Pytheas Guttonibus Germanise genti accoli aBStuarium 
" oceani Mentonomon nomine spatio stadiorum : ab hoc diei 
" navigatione insulam abesse Abalum : illo vere fluctibus ad- 
" vehi, et esse concreti maris purgamentum : incolas pro ligno 
" ad ignem uti eo proximisque Teutonis vend ere. Huic et Ti- 
" maeus credidit, sed insulam Baltiam vocavit." Plin. Hist. Nat. 
lib. xxxvii. cap. 2. The island of Abalus, or Baltia, may be 
Abo. 



16 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

distinguished in Europe under that name, but by 
the appellation of Wends, given to the Sclavonic 
race by the Germans, we recognise them in the geo- 
graphical descriptions of Pliny and Tacitus, who 
mention the Venedi, and place them near the Finns, 
and on the borders of Finningia. There the Ovev&at, 
or Winidae, are stationed by Ptolemy and Jornan- 
des, and the last of these writers appropriates ex- 
pressly the name of Winidae to the Sclavonic nations. 
It is besides highly probable that the Russians were 
known to Herodotus, and that they are mentioned 
by him under a term little varying from that which 
is now applied to the same people by their Finnish 
neighbours ; for the Finns distinguish the Muscovites 
by the name of Rosso-lainen, or Russian people, and 
call themselves and nations of their own kindred 
Suoma-lainen. The word Rosso-lainen heard and 
written by a Greek would be Rhoxolani. The 
Rhoxolani, who are first described by Herodotus, 
are said in the age of Strabo to have inhabited the 
plains near the sources of the Tanais and the Bo- 
rysthenes. 

It appears, then, that the European races, in the 
earliest periods in which we have any information 
respecting them, held nearly the same relative situa- 
tions as the tribes of people who are chiefly de- 
scended from them still continue to occupy. Thus 
far the facts which history developes afford no evi- 
dence against the hypothesis, that different parts of 
the world were originally filled with indigenous in- 
habitants. It would be vain to attempt, merely from 
traits of resemblance in some customs or supersti- 
tions, or even from the doctrines of druidism and 
the mythology of the sagas, to ascribe a common 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 17 

origin to the nations of Europe and those of the 
East. By a similar mode of reasoning we might 
perhaps as well deduce the Turks and the Tartars 
from Arabia, and the Buddhists of northern Asia 
from India or Ceylon. Nor can historical traditions 
fill up the void. We can only hope by an analysis 
of the European languages to obtain a proof, that 
these races of people, having preserved common ele- 
ments of speech, were connected in origin with the 
nations of Asia. 

The languages of the Finnish nations, the Lap- 
landers, the Hungarians, the Ostiaks, and other 
Siberian Tschudes, have been compared and care- 
fully analysed by several German and other northern 
writers, particularly by Gyarmathi, Adelung, Gat- 
terer, and Julius Klaproth. The result that ap- 
pears to have been sufficiently established is, as I 
have elsewhere remarked, that all these nations 
sprang from one original. The primitive seat of 
this great race of men, or rather the earliest station 
in which we can discover them by historical inqui- 
ries, is the country which lies between the chain of 
Caucasus and the southern extremities of the Ura- 
lian mountains. 

But our chief concern at present is with the Indo- 
European tribes. That term was designed to in- 
clude a class of nations, many of them inhabitants 
of Europe, whose dialects are more or less nearly 
related to the ancient language of India. This dis- 
covery was originally made by comparing the San- 
skrit with the Greek and Latin. A very consider- 
able number of words were found to be common to 
these languages, and a still more striking affinity 

c 



18 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

was proved to exist between the grammatical forms 
respectively belonging to them. It is difficult to de- 
termine which idiom, the Latin or the Greek, ap- 
proaches most nearly to the Sanskrit, but they 
are all evidently branches of one stem. 

It was easily proved, that the Teutonic as well as 
the Sclavonian dialects, and the Lettish or Lithua- 
nian which are in some respects intermediate be- 
tween the former, stand nearly in the same rela- 
tion to the ancient language of India. 

Several intermediate languages, as the Zend and 
other Persian dialects, the Armenian and the Ossete, 
which is one of the various idioms spoken by the 
nations of Caucasus, have been supposed by writers 
who have examined their structure and etymology 
to belong to the same stock . 

Thus a near relation was proved to subsist be- 
tween a considerable number of dialects spoken 
by nations who are spread over a great part of Eu- 
rope and Asia. It may be remarked, that the more 
accurate the examination of these languages has 
been, the more extensive and deeply rooted their 
affinity has been discovered to be. Those who are ac- 
quainted with Professor Jacob Grimm's able and lu- 
cid Analysis of the Teutonic idioms, will fully admit 
the truth of this remark. The historical inference 
hence deduced is, that the European nations, who 
speak dialects referrible to this class of languages, 
are of the same race with the Indians and other 
Asiatics to whom the same observation may be ap- 
plied ; and this conclusion seems to have been ad- 
mitted by writers who in general have displayed 

c Klaproth, Asia Polyglotta. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 19 

little indulgence towards the visionary speculations 
of philologists' 1 . 

The inquiry has frequently been made, whether 
the Celtic dialects belong to the class of languages 
thus allied, for which the term Indo-European is the 
most suitable designation. The question is an in- 
teresting one, because it has a particular bearing on 
the origin of the nations of western Europe, includ- 
ing the British isles, as well as a more extensive one 
on the physical history of mankind. We have to 

d The Edinburgh Reviewers, in a late critique, to which the ob- 
servation in the text may particularly be applied, have remarked: 
" We are free to confess that the result of our inquiries has 
" been to produce a conviction in our minds that the affinities 
" known to subsist between the Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and 
" German languages are perfectly irreconcilable with any 
" other supposition than that of their having all been derived 
" from a common source or primitive language spoken by a 
" people of whom the Indians, Greeks, Latins, and Germans 
" were equally the descendants." Ed. Rev. No. 102. p. 562. 
Baron Cuvier has admitted the same inference as far as it re- 
lates to the Indians and the Greeks, which is equivalent to its 
general admission. He says, "The Pelasgi were originally from 
" India, of which the Sanskrit roots that occur abundantly in 
" their language do not permit us to doubt. It is probable that by 
" crossing the mountains of Persia they penetrated as far as the 
" Caucasus ; and that from this point, instead of continuing 
" their route by land, they embarked on the Black Sea, and 
" made a descent upon the coasts of Greece." In another pas- 
sage of the same lecture, M. Cuvier observes, "that the San- 
" skrit language is the most regular that is known, and that it 
" is especially remarkable for the circumstance that it contains 
" the roots of the various languages of Europe, of the Greek, 
" Latin, German, and Sclavonic." (Baron Cuvier's Lectures on 
the Natural Sciences.) He has omitted the. Celtic nations, the 
earliest inhabitants of Western Europe, and perhaps regards 
them as Aborigines. 

c 2 



80 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

inquire whether the same arguments which prove 
most of the other nations in this quarter of the 
world to have sprung from an eastern origin, may 
also be applied to that stock whose branches at the 
earliest period of history were spread over Gaul and 
Britain, and a part of Spain. Writers on the his- 
tory of languages and the antiquity of nations have 
been divided with respect to this question. Ade- 
lung and Murray have regarded the Celtic as a 
branch* of the Indo-European stock. But the latter 
of these writers has passed over the subject in a 
very cursory manner, or rather, he has left that 
part of his work which relates to the Celtic dialects 
in an incomplete state. And Adelung, who has 
been followed in this particular by many foreign 
writers, has committed the error of supposing the 
Welsh tongue to be a descendant from the language 
of the Belgae, and not from that of the Celtae, who 
inhabited the central parts of Gaul, and, as it is gene- 
rally supposed, of Britain. A want of access to in- 
formation respecting the Celtic dialects has prevented 
the learned men of Germany from forming correct 
opinions on their relations to each other, and hence 
it has arisen, that this department in the history of 
languages — a subject which has been principally in- 
vestigated by German writers — still remains but 
imperfectly elucidated. Many of the continental 
writers, among whom may be mentioned Frederick 
Schlegel and Malte Brun, seem to have believed the 
Celtic to be a language of a distinct class, entirely 
unconnected with the other idioms of Europe ; and 
in England the same opinion has been expressed by 
several well-known authors. Mr. Pinkerton has de- 
clared in the most positive terms that the Celtae 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. <>1 

were a people entirely distinct from the rest of man- 
kind. He says that their language, "the real Celtic, 
Y is as remote from the Greek as the Hottentot from 
•* the Lapponic." " The mythology of the Celtae," 
adds Mr. Pinkerton, " resembled, in all probability, 
•* that of the Hottentots, or others the rudest sa- 
•• rages, as the Celtae anciently were, and are little 
*• better at present, being incapable of any progress 
*• in society." A late writer, in a work of extensive 
research, at the conclusion of a chapter, in which he 
has refuted some of the opinions of Pelloutier and 
Bullet with respect to the Celtae and their language, 
thus sums up the general result of his inquiries 6 . 
" With regard," he says, " to the languages of Asia, 
" I may adopt the words of Davis in the preface to 
" his Dictionary, after substituting the word nullam 
" for mamfestam. ' Ausim affirmare linguam Bri- 
" tannicam (Celticam) turn vocibus, turn phrasibus 
" et orationis contextu, turn literarum pronuncia- 
" tione, nullam cum orientalibus habere congruen- 
" tiam et affinitatem f .' The Celtic, therefore," con- 
tinues the same writer, " when divested of all words 
u which have been introduced into it by conquest 
" and religion, is a perfectly original language : but 
" this originality incontrovertibly proves that nei- 
" ther Greek, Latin, or the Teutonic dialects, nor 
" Arabic, Persian, or Sanskrit, were derived from 



e Researches into the Origin and Affinity of the principal Lan- 
guages of Asia and Europe, by Lieut. Col. Vans Kennedy, &c. 
London, 1828. p. 85. 

f " I dare to affirm that the British or Celtic language has no 
" connection or affinity with the languages of the East, either in 
" words, or phrases, or the construction of sentences, or the pro- 
" nunciation of letters." 

c 3 






22 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

" the Celtic, since these languages have not any af- 
" finity whatever with that tongue." 

In the first edition of my Researches into the Phy- 
sical History of Mankind, which was published in 
1813, fifteen years before the work from which the 
preceding extract has been taken, I ventured to 
make the following statement on this subject, the 
result of what appeared to myself an adequate ex- 
amination. 

" We have remarked above that there is historical 
" proof of the connexion of the Sclavonian, German, 
" and Pelasgian races with the ancient Asiatic na- 
" tions. Now the languages of these races and the 
" Celtic, although differing much from each other, 
" and constituting the four principal departments of 
" dialects which prevail in Europe, are yet so far 
" allied in their radical elements, that we may with 
" certainty pronounce them to be branches of the 
" same original stock. The resemblance is remark- 
" able in the general structure of speech, and in 
" those parts of the vocabulary which must be sup- 
" posed to be the most ancient, as in words descrip- 
" tive of common objects and feelings, for which ex- 
" pressive terms existed in the primitive ages of so- 
" ciety. We must therefore infer, that the nations 
" to whom these languages belonged emigrated from 
" the same quarter £." 

g Researches &c. p. 534. The following note was appended 
to this passage : 

" The author of the review of Wilkins's Sanskrit Grammar, 
" in the thirteenth volume of the Edinburgh Review, has given 
" a comparative vocabulary of the Sanskrit, Persic, Latin, and 
" German languages, which completely evinces the truth of the 
" position here affirmed, as far as the above languages are con- 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. £3 

The extent which my work necessarily assumed, 
and the apparent incongruity of filling up any con- 
siderate part of a physiological essay with glos- 
saries or remarks on grammatical forms, combined 
with other reasons in preventing me from entering 
at full into the proof of these assertions, and the 
same circumstances operated likewise at the publi- 
cation of the second edition. I have, however, had 
the subject occasionally in view during the interval, 
and have collected from time to time materials for a 
treatise upon it, which many circumstances have at 
length determined me to lay before the public. 
Among these may be mentioned the decided opinion 
advanced in the work from which I have above 
cited a passage, proving, unless I am mistaken, that 
there is not as yet sufficient information before the 
public on a subject of considerable moment in re- 
spect to the history of the human race, and the re- 
lation of its various branches to each other. An- 
other motive to this determination has been the 
advice of some learned friends with whom I have 
conversed on the subject of the following treatise, 
and particularly of the two highly distinguished 
men, to whom it is dedicated. 

The main object which I have had in view in the 
composition of this work has been, to institute such 
a comparison of the Celtic dialects with the lan- 
guages allowed to belong to the Indo-European 
stock, as may tend to illustrate the relation of the 
Celtic people to the rest of mankind. In the course, 

" cerned. But the proof would have been more striking, if he 
" had added the Celtic dialects and the Greek. I have made 
" an attempt to supply this deficiency, which I intend to make 
" public." 

c 4 



24 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

however, of this inquiry, I have incidentally disco- 
vered that the relations between the languages 
above mentioned and the Celtic, is such as not 
merely to establish the affinity of the respective na- 
tions, but likewise to throw light upon the struc- 
ture of the Indo-European languages in general, 
and particularly to illustrate some points of ob- 
scurity, to which many writers on grammar and 
etymology have adverted without fully elucidating 
them. The following pages will contain such re- 
marks as I have thought requisite in this point of 
view. 



SECTION III. 

Of the Celtic dialects extant — Modes of orthography — Au- 
thorities. 

It may be doubted whether the term Celtic lan- 
guages is the most proper epithet for the class of 
idioms generally designated, and which I shall con- 
tinue, in compliance with custom, to designate by 
that name. The Celtse, properly so called, were a 
people of Gaul. Of their language we have no 
undoubted specimen. There are, indeed, strong- 
grounds for believing that it was a kindred tongue 
with the dialects of the British isles ; but it would 
be better to take the general name of a whole class 
of languages from something that actually remains. 

There are six dialects of the language termed 
Celtic which may be said to survive, as five are still 
spoken, and one of them, viz. the Cornish, is suffi- 
ciently preserved in books. These six dialects are, 
the Welsh, the Cornish, the Armorican, the Irish 
or Erse, the Gaelic or Highland-Scottish, and the 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 25 

Blanks. The three former are relics of the idiom 
of the ancient Britons ; the three latter, of that 
spoken by the inhabitants of Ireland. We have 
historical evidence 8 that the Britons of Armorica, 
the Britanni of Gregory of Tours, emigrated from 
Britain, through the whole extent of which, with 
the exception of some parts of the southern coast, 
where the Belgae from Gaul had settled, it is pro- 
bable that one language prevailed at the era of the 
Roman conquest b . Of this language the three dia- 
lects of Wales, Cornwall, and Lower Brittany are 
descendants. Of the Irish language, the Scottish 
Gaelic is a slight modification : the Manks differs 
more considerably, and it is probable that the Isle 
of Man had inhabitants from this branch of the 
Celtic stock long before the emigration of the Scots 
from Ireland to the coast of Argyle. 

I shall in general take the Welsh as a specimen 
of the Britannic dialects, and the Erse, or old Irish, 
as an example of the other class ; but I shall add 
occasionally words or forms which exist in the sub- 
ordinate dialects, and are lost, or have become less 
distinct, in either of the principal ones. 

I have experienced some difficulty in adopting a 
regular method in the orthography of Celtic words. 
The modern system of representing consonants in 
the Welsh and the Erse languages is so remote from 
the usage of other tongues, that I have thought it 
advisable to deviate from it in some instances. In 

a Chiefly in the works of Gregory of Tours and Eginhardt — 
I have surveyed the evidence on this subject in my Researches 
into the Physical History of Mankind. 

b That the Caledonians had this language has been proved by 
Chalmers and Ritson. 






26 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

the former I have occasionally followed the ortho- 
graphy of Edward Lhuyd, in preference to that 
which is sanctioned by the authority of the Welsh 
translators of the Bible. The grounds for this pre- 
ference will appear obviously in the particular in- 
stances in which it has been made, to those who are 
acquainted with the Welsh language and its pro- 
nunciation, and other readers will have no reason to 
complain of a method which will guide them to the 
proper utterance of words, when it would otherwise 
have escaped them. In the Irish orthography, which 
can scarcely be said to have any fixed standard, I 
have followed the best authorities within my reach. 
In the orthography of Sanskrit words I have de- 
viated but little from the system proposed by sir 
William Jones. In some few instances, however, 
which will be obvious to those who are acquainted 
with that method, I have endeavoured to approach 
more nearly to the habit of our own language . 

c I have followed Mr. Yates in substituting for the four San- 
skrit diphthongs, v^,V^, 3f|, *3\ |, the following, ai> ox, b, au 
There being some uncertainty as to the exact pronunciation of 
vowels in ancient languages, it seems allowable to use those 
vowels as representatives of each other, which in fact generally 
are found in corresponding words, provided this method is not 
used in such a manner as to produce an appearance of resem- 
blance in words which are not in reality cognate. 



O cms* 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 27 



CHAPTER I. 

Preliminary survey of the forms of words and the permutations 
of letters. 
Section I. Introductory Remarks. 
IN order to display, in its real extent, the affinity 
which subsists between the Celtic dialects and other 
languages, it will be necessary to compare them in 
two different points of view, and to examine, in the 
first place, the relations between their respective vo- 
cabularies or stocks of primitive words or roots, and 
secondly, the peculiarities and coincidences in their 
grammatical structure. But before we enter into 
details which properly belong to either of these sub- 
jects, we must consider some general principles of 
inflection, which have an important influence on the 
structure of words and sentences in several of the 
languages to be examined. 



SECTION II. 

Of the permutation of letters in composition and construction — 
Of Sandhi and Samasa in Sanskrit — Of the same principles 
as discovered in the Celtic dialects — in the Welsh — in the 
Erse — Of the digamma and sibilant in Greek. 

It is a habit common to many of the Indo-Euro- 
pean languages to interchange certain letters accord- 
ing to rules founded originally on euphony, or on 
the facility of utterance ; and from this circum- 
stance arises the great capability, which these lan- 
guages possess, of composition, or the formation of 
compound words. The substitution of consonants of 
particular orders for their cognates, which takes 

t 



28 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

place in Greek in the composition of words, and in 
some other instances, is an example of this pecu- 
liarity. 

In Greek, in Latin, and in the German dialects, 
the mutation of consonants is confined to words 
brought together under very peculiar circumstances, 
as chiefly when they enter into the formation of 
compound terms, and it is scarcely observed in 
words which still remain distinct, and are merely 
constituent parts of sentences. Either the attention 
to euphony and the ease of utterance has not ex- 
tended so far, or the purpose was attained by a 
choice of collocation, the words themselves remain- 
ing unaltered. But in the Sanskrit language words 
merely in sequence have an influence upon each 
other in the change of terminations, and sometimes 
of initial letters, on the principle above alluded to. 
Thus, instead of atishtat manajak, stabat homo, the 
man stood, we find the words written atishtan ma- 
nujak, the final t of the verb atishtat, stabat, being 
altered into n on account of the liquid consonant 
with which the next word begins. This change in 
distinct words is termed by the Sanskrit gramma- 
rians WtV? Sandhi, conjunction ; but the laws ac- 
cording to which compound words are formed, and 
which have a similar reference to euphony, are de- 
signated *^*i m, Samasa, coalition. This last pro- 
cess is to be observed in most, if not in all the Eu- 
ropean languages, and the rules which govern it in 
all instances are very similar ; but the alteration of 
consonants in entire words, according to the rules 
of Sandhi, have been considered as in a great mea- 
sure peculiar to the Sanskrit. It is, however, a re- 
markable fact, that in the Celtic dialects, and more 



TI-IK CELTIC NATIONS. 



29 



especially in the Welsh, permutations in many re- 
spects analogous to those of Sandhi are constant and 
indispensable in the formation of sentences. It is 
impossible to bring three or four words together in 
the Celtic languages, without modifications similar 
in their principle to those of Sandhi. 

The general principle of these changes in Sanskrit 
may be understood by the following table of conso- 
nants, arranged according to the organs by means 
of which they are pronounced, and likewise accord- 
ing to the intensity and mode of utterance. The 
former arrangement is analogous in some respects 
to that of the Greek mutes, but more numerous and 
comprehensive. It consists of five classes, termed 
Guttural, Palatine, Lingual, Dental, and Labial. 
To these is added a sixth, consisting of semivowels ; 
and a seventh, containing Sibilants and an Aspirate, 
which is associated with the Sibilants. The second 
division is into two orders termed Surds and So- 
nants. 







Surds. 




SONANTS. 




Gutturals 


K 




K'h 


G 


G'h 


Ng. 


Palatines 


Ch 




Ch'h 


J 


J'h 


Gn. 


Linguals 


T 




T'h 


D 


P'h 


N. 


Dentals 


T 




T'h 


D 


D'h 


N. 


Labials 


P 




P'h 


B 


B'h 


M. 


Semivowels 








Y- 


_R_L- 


-V. 


Sibilants 


S 


Sh 


S H 









The vowels are included 
among the Sonants. 

The laws of Sandhi forbid the meeting of conso- 
nants of different orders. Hence a Surd consonant 
at the end of a word is changed with the corre- 
sponding sonant, if the next word begins with a so- 



30 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



riant ; and sonants are changed into surds if the fol- 
lowing words begin with surds. 

Nearly of the same description are the mutations 
of consonants in the Celtic language ; but in order 
to obtain a view of the whole system of these 
changes, it is necessary to compare several dialects, 
as there is not one which preserves them all in an 
entire state. The Welsh alphabet has them, how- 
ever, in greater variety than the others. In this 
all mute consonants of the order termed above surds 
have four forms, and those which correspond with 
the sonants have three. The semivowels or liquids 
have two. The sibilant letter had probably its mu- 
tation into the aspirate, but this is lost in Welsh, 
though preserved, as we shall see, in the Erse. 

First order, the primitive letters being surds. 





First form, 
Sharp. 


Second form, 
Obtuse. 


Third form, 
Aspirate. 


Fourth form, 
Liquid. 


Gutturals 

Dentals 

Labials 


C 
t 

P 


g 

d 
b 


ch 

th 
P h 


ngh 

nh 

mh 



Second order, in which the primitives are sonants. 
These have two changes. 





Primitive. 


Obtuse. 




Liquid. 


Gutturals 

Dentals 

Labials 


g 

d 
b 


initial omitted 
dh or Saxon p 

V 


ng 

n 

m 


lird order, Liquids. These have one chan 


lh (corresponding with the surd 
lh or lr of the Vedas.) 


1 


m 
rh 








V 

r 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



31 



Of the mutations of consonants in the Erse or 
Gaelic. 
In the Erse dialect of the Celtic language the 
imitations of consonants are not so varied. Each 
consonant appears in two forms only, which are 
termed the plain and the aspirated. But the aspi- 
rated forms in the Erse are often the obtuse forms 
in Welsh, the aspiration being deceptive, and arising 
from the imperfect orthography adopted in this lan- 
guage. The addition of h to the primitive conso- 
nant serves only to render it obtuse, or in other in- 
stances to obliterate it. On this account I shall set 
down the table of consonants, with one column for 
the obtuse letters as usually spelled, and another in- 
dicating their pronunciation, which is in general si- 
milar to that of the obtuse forms in Welsh. 



Gutturals 

Dentals 
Labials 

Liquids 
Sibilants 



It f is to be observed that H never stands as the 
initial of a word in Erse in the primitive form, or 



"Plain or primitive 


form. 


Secondary form 
as spelled. 


Secondary form 
as articulated. 


Cor K 




Ch 


X aspirate] 
or Kh \ 


G hard 




Gh 




T 




Th 


H 


D 




Dh 




P 




Ph 


F 


B 




Bh 


V 


M 




Mh 


V 


F 




Fh or H 


H 


L (like Welsh 


Lh) 


L 


L plain 


N 




N 




R (like Rh) 




R 




S 




Shi „ 
. > or H 
S ) 


H 



32 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

is never in fact an independent radical letter. It is 
merely a secondary form or representative of some 
other initial, viz. F or S. It must likewise be no- 
ticed, that the same words which begin with S or F 
as their primitive initial in the Erse, taking H in 
their secondary form, have in Welsh H as their pri- 
mitive initial. This fact affords an instance exactly 
parallel to the substitution in Greek of the rough 
and soft breathings for the iEolic digamma, and in 
other words for the sigma. O/W, as it is well 
known, stands for Foiva, "Eo-nepos for Fev-rrepos, and 
en™ probably replaced a more ancient form of the 
same word, viz. aeTrra ; ef stands for o-ef, lg and epvco 
for <Tv$ and a-epirw. These instances might lead us 
to suppose, as Edward Lhuyd has long ago ob- 
served, that the Greek language had originally a re- 
gular mutation of initial consonants, similar to that 
of the Celtic, though it was lost, except in these in- 
stances, or rather, as pointed out by these vestiges, 
previously to the invention of letters. 

It is necessary to explain somewhat more fully 
the nature of these mutations of consonants in the 
Celtic language, and this can only be done by point- 
ing out the circumstances under which they take 
place. The following examples are from the Welsh. 

1 . Words of four initials. 

Gutturals. 
Car, a kinsman. 

1. form Car agos, a near kinsman. ** 

2. form Ei gar, his kinsman. 

3. form Ei char, her kinsman. 

4. form Vy nghar, my kinsman. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



33 



tu y 



Dentals. 
Tad, a father. 

1. form, Tad y plentyn, the child's father. 

2. form, Ei dad, his father. 

3. form, Ei thad, her father. 

4. form, Vy nhad, my father. 

Labials. 
Pen, a head. 

1. form, Pen gwr, the head of a man. 

2. form, Ei ben, his head. 

3. form, Ei phen, her head. 

4. form, Vy mhen, my head. 

2. Words of three initials. 

Gutturals. 
Gwas, a servant. 

1. form, Gwas fydhlon, a faithful servant. 
Ei was, his servant. 
Vy ngwas, my servant. 

Dentals. 






2. 


form, 


3. 


form, 


Duw, a god 


1. 


form, 


2. 


form, 


3. 


form, 









Duw trugarog, a merciful god. 
Ei dhuw, his god. 
Vy nuw, my god. 

Labials. 
Bara, bread. 

1. form, Bara cann, white bread. 

2. form, Ei vara, his bread. 

3. form, Vy mara, my bread. 



<?2^t^v-^-w <** v 



3. Words of two initials, viz. liquids and sibilants. 
Lhaw, a hand. 



1. form, Lhaw wenn, a white hand. 

2. form, Ei law, his hand. 

D 









34 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

Mam, a mother. 

1. form Mam dirion, a tender mother. 

2. form Ei vam, his mother. 
Rhwyd, a net. 

1. form Rhwyd lawn, a full net. 

2. form Ei rwyd, his net. 

As the sibilant has no similar inflexion in Welsh, 
I must take an example from the Erse. 
Suil a , an eye. J* 

1. form Suil. 

2. form a Mil, his eye. 

Slainte, health. — - 

2. form Do hlainte, your health. ~V^ 

N. B. F has the same mutation. 

Words beginning with vowels in Welsh are sub- 
ject to changes similar to those belonging to the 
form Guna in Sanskrit. They also take the aspi- 
rate after words which cause the consonants to be 
aspirated. 

In Welsh composition these changes in the initial 
consonants take place more frequently in reference 
to the sense of words and the rules of grammatical 
construction, and without any respect to the prin- 
ciple of euphony which governs the Sandhi in San- 
skrit. But there are a great many similar changes 
in Welsh, for which no other reason can be assigned 
than some real or fancied advantage in respect to 

a In these instances the initial s, though converted into an 
aspirate in pronunciation, is sometimes retained in orthography, 
either with a dot over it, or followed by h. But in either case 
the sibilant is entirely lost. There seems to be no precise rule 
of orthography in this instance. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 35 

sound or the facility of utterance. It must likewise 
he observed, that in some instances changes are in- 
duced in the terminating consonants of preceding 
words, as well as in the initials of succeeding ones. 

In the influence which some of the numerals have 
on other words examples may be found tending to 
illustrate these remarks. 

Un makes no change in the following noun ; as 

un gwr, one man. 
Tri and chwech change the initials into the cor- 
responding aspirates ; as 

tri char, for tri car. 
chwech char, or chwe char. 
Deg, ten, before blynedh, years, changes not only 
the initial of the following word into its correspond- 
ing liquid, but likewise its own final consonant into 
the liquid analogous to it. Thus instead of 

deg blynedh, 
we read 

deng mlynedh, ten years ; 
and instead of 

pump blynedh, 
we find 

pum mlynedh, five years. 
In like manner, when the preposition yn is pre- 
fixed to a noun, it not only changes the initial of 
the following noun on the same principle of eu- 
phony, or ease of pronunciation, but is likewise itself 
changed. Thus for 

yn canol, we read yng nghanol, 

yn pen ym mhen, 

yn ty yn nhy, 

yn bara ym mara, 

yn gwr yng ngwr. 

D 2 



36 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

The changes above described are in a great mea- 
sure analogous to those which have been pointed 
out as taking place in Sanskrit, except that the 
latter affect principally, though by no means exclu- 
sively, the terminations of words. 



SECTION III. 

Of the interchange of particular letters between different lan- 
guages — Table of numerals — Observations deduced from it. 

There is another comparison of corresponding 
consonants and vowels, or of letters frequently and 
habitually interchanged, which it is necessary to 
take into consideration, before we can proceed with 
advantage in examining the analogies which exist 
between languages of the same stock. I refer to the 
phenomena which relate to the interchange of par- 
ticular letters in the derivation of words from one 
dialect into another, or in deducing them into both 
from a common original, and to facts which prove 
that these changes take place according to certain 
rules, and not by a merely accidental variation or 
corruption. 

In order to ascertain the rules which govern this 
system of changes it is necessary to proceed with 
great caution. The vague conjectures in which 
writers upon etymology have too frequently in- 
dulged, have brought ridicule and contempt upon 
the legitimate pursuits of the philologist, and upon 
the philosophical study of languages, and have in- 
duced some persons to entertain doubt, whether it is 
possible to deduce from this quarter any historical 
conclusions of importance, either as to the deriva- 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 37 

tion of languages themselves, or of the tribes of 
people who are found to use them. As an introduc- 
tion to what may be stated on this subject, I lay 
before my readers a comparison of the cardinal 
numbers in several Indo-European languages. It 
will be apparent on a very superficial glance, that 
the words expressing these numerals in all the dia- 
lects mentioned are derived from one origin, though 
variously modified; and a survey of these modifica- 
tions will shew the particular changes which words 
and the elements of words assume in the respective 
languages. 



D 3 



Si s 



13 

cf 

C 

"8 

CO 



CO 

a 



2 

a 



.o 






60 

3 a 

-a 



be 



o 



a 
a 
ja 



J- 
o 

<a 



2 



a 



a § 

I 1 

a +-> 



a 
So 






s 

a 

60 

CO 

a 



a 
a 

^3 






§■8 s-fe * 



fr2 v $ 



£r £r t- fc= t= i- fc £ <** 



e bo 



s 

ft 
o 



ft 



rem 



*3 



!> eg a 

t3-o a 

cu a> a 

PhP, A 



•3 






-§ 



£ 60 

a <cd 
a t3 




w 



o a 



CD CD 
CO CO 



o 




3 




I 



u 

CD 

•T3 



a 
•5b 



3 

a 

'60 







P-i CO 



co O 
O > 



c3 

I 



cu 
-T3 



c3 
> 
n3 



% 2 






^ 



a 



CO 



I I 



^ 
«> 



c8 !FH 

=1 -I 



a 

ctf 

H3 



■c 



K 



I I J 



pte'&dEr 



■8 

•8 
I 

A- 



8 



CD .*■* 



4 

CD 



a cd 
a ^ 



t i a 



I t 



J-l 

R 


■9 


-9 


a 

CCJ 




a 


a 

XL 


as 
60 


etf 


s 


03 


Ph 


^3 


> 

a 


c3 


a 




cS 
Ph 


CO 


a 


3 


*G 


> 



z 



tr fer tF RT 






c3 
60 

a 



I 



1 
co 



I 



a 

ccj 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



39 



A very slight inspection of these tables will be 
sufficient to convince any person that nearly all the 
words contained in them are derived by each lan- 
guage from some of its cognates, or by all from a 
common source. It is therefore allowable to make 
them a subject of examination, from which the pe- 
culiarities of each dialect may, so far as such a spe- 
cimen can extend, be discovered. 

It is easy to observe that certain consonants, or 
certain classes of consonants in one language, are 
almost uniformly substitutes for certain others in a 
different language ; and although this observation 
can here be made only on a confined scale from so 
small a specimen of the vocabulary, it may be suffi- 
cient for furnishing suggestions which will be amply 
established from other materials. 

One of the most striking facts that appears on 
comparing these lists of numerals is, that in some of 
the languages of western Europe guttural or hard 
palatine consonants abound, and take the place of 
the sibilants, soft palatines, and dentals, and even of 
the labial consonants, which are found in the more 
eastern and in some northern languages. Thus 



S£I — sh ] f c, i. e. k 

*T— s q 

^ — sn . , • g 

r-r >are converted mto< , . 

H — p r ^ ch, 1. e. x 



D 4 



40 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 






> become 






The following examples prove this remark: 
Numeral 4. 
chatur, Sansk. 
chetyre, Russ. 
chehar, Pers. 

T€TTap€$, Gr. 
TMTVpef, 

pedwar, Welsh 
petor, Oscan. 
fidwor, Goth, 
fiuuar, Teut. 

Numeral 5. 

pancha, Sansk. p & ch 
penj, Pers. p & j 

7reVT€, Gr. 7T & T 

Gr. 7T & 7T 

Welsh p & p 
Goth, f & f 



I ch 

}: 



quatuor, Lat. 
keathair, Erse 



pump, 
fimf, 



s 

o 



q and q, quinque, Lat. 
k and g, kuig, Erse 



Numeral 6. 
shash, Sans, sh & sh ' 
shesh, Pers. sh & sh 
sex, Lat. s & x 
saihs, Goth, s & s 



g f ch & ch ) , «.„•».* 
, fchwech, Welsh 






- g j guttural 

f) and f, ef, Greek 

Numeral 7. 



saptan, Sansk. s & pt " 
septem, Lat. s & pt 
saith, Welsh s & th 



ashtan, Sansk. 
hesht, Pers. 
wyth, Welsh 



a 

V o 
w 
u 



s and cht, Erse 

h and ft, Pers. 

( f ) and or, Greek 

Numeral 8. 

cht ocht, Erse 

kt oktw, Greek 

ct octo, Lat. 

ht ahtan, Goth. 



shr 


.1. 


sht 




U 


th 


0) 







THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



41 





Numeral 10. 










K §€K(X 9 


Greek 






, Xfl 


c decern, 


Lat. 




dashan, Sansk. 


sh 


s 

■ o - 
o 

0) 


ch deich, 
g deg, 


Erse 
Welsh 






. pC 


h tehan, 
h taihun, 


Teut. 
Goth. 






Numeral 20. 








"! GO 


g viginti, 


Lat. 




vinshati, Sansk. 


sh 


S 

■ o " 
u 

en 


g ugain, 

k eiKocri a , 


Welsh 
Greek 






J & 


ch fichid, 


Erse 




Numeral 30. 






trinshat, Sansk. 


GO 

sh } | \ K T ?' lcucov ™> 
f § (g triginta, 

Numeral 100. 


Greek 
Lat. 








K €KO,T0V 9 


Greek 




shatum, Sansk. 
sad, Pers. 


sh|| 


c centum, 
c cant, 
k kett, 


Lat. 

Welsh 

Erse 










h hunt, 


Goth. 





The preceding facts suggest the following obser- 
vations. 

The Sanskrit and some other languages holding 
a near relation to it in the forms of words abound 
in sibilants and soft palatine consonants. They 
have these letters in several instances, in which cog- 
nate words in other languages have in the place of 
them gutturals, or hard palatines, or dentals. 



a e'Uocri was probably FeUovn. 



42 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

The Greek substitutes for the sibilants and soft 
palatines of the Sanskrit, chiefly the tenues of the 
hard palatine or guttural class and of the dental, 
viz. k and t. In several instances the Greek, parti- 
cularly the iEolic, has tt in the place of the Sanskrit 
soft palatine, or ^ — ch ; as in wcpre for pancha, neavpa 
(neTvpa?) for chatur. 

The Welsh makes nearly the same substitutions 
as the iEolic Greek. It puts p for the soft palatine 
ch in the instances before mentioned. It substitutes 
more generally hard palatines or gutturals (either c, 
i. e. k,) or ch for the soft palatines and sibilants of 
Sanskrit. It has the aspirate guttural ch instead of 
the aspirate sibilant sh. It has th in the place of ct 
and pt. 

The Erse substitutes for the sibilants and soft 
palatines of the Sanskrit, gutturals, as the hard 
c or k, as also in some instances the guttural as- 
pirate ch. 

The Latin displays nearly the same phenomena 
as the Erse. It puts c or q, equivalent to k, in the 
places of the letters above mentioned. Neither the 
Erse nor the Latin adopts the p of the Welsh and 
iEolic Greek, but they have c or q instead of it, as 
in other instances where the Sanskrit has ch — ^. 

The Gothic and other Teutonic dialects resemble 
the Welsh and the iEolic Greek, except in the cir- 
cumstance that they prefer aspirate consonants, as 
finfe for wfywre or pump, fidwor for pedwar, or vervp, 
thri for tri. They likewise substitute the simple h 
in the place of palatines and sibilants in other lan- 
guages, as may be seen in a variety of instances, as 
in the numerals, 6, 8, 9, 10, 100. The Persic and 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 43 

the Greek languages use the aspirate in some in- 
stances in a similar manner. 

We are not yet prepared for entering on a com- 
parison of the vowels and diphthongs as they are 
related to each other in these cognate languages. 



44 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



CHAPTER II. 

Further proofs and extension of the observations laid down in 
the preceding chapter. 

Section I. Introductory Remarks. 

X HE changes which I have pointed out in the 
preceding section between particular consonants 
in the derivation of words from one language to 
another, appear, in some instances, so unlikely, and 
the analogy, if any, in pronunciation is so remote, 
that many of my readers may be disposed to regard 
the examples on which I have founded my remarks 
as a mere result of accidental coincidence. These 
changes are, notwithstanding, regular and systema- 
tic. I shall not attempt to account for them, or to 
say how they took place, but they are accordant 
with observations which may be traced to a great 
extent in the comparison of kindred languages. As 
I cannot, however, expect that any person should be 
convinced of this fact on my assertion, I shall here 
adduce some further evidence. 



SECTION II. 

Of the interchange of palatine or guttural consonants with la- 
bials in the different languages. 

The interchange of cognate letters, both mutes 
and liquids a , is a thing familiar to every body, but 

a The cognate mutes are 

t, d, th. 

k, g, ch. 

p, b, ph. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 45 

the permutation of palatines into labials appears 
much more improbable. We have observed that 
this interchange has taken place in several instances 
in the numerals of Indo-European languages. Great 
as the difference is between such elements of articu- 
lation as k and p, we find them to stand as repre- 
sentatives for each other even in two different dia- 
lects of the same language. Some dialects of the 
Greek language afford a well-known exemplification 
of this remark. The Ionians and iEolians inserted 
Ka7nra in a variety of words, instead of wi, used in the 
other Grecian dialects. This remark has been made 
by many of the scholiasts and old grammarians, and 
more fully by Vossius b , who says, " Iones in interro- 
1 gativis et relativis mutant 7r in k. Ita kx$ dicunt 
1 pro nag ; OK&g pro oncog ; kyj pro 7tyj ; 7zwo§-, Koaog ; 
1 07roaog 9 oKoaog ; voio$, Kohg ; 07ro?og, OKoiog ; 7tot€, Kore ; 
' o7tot€, okot€. Grsecis quoque Kva^og est faba. iEoles 
' quoque uti k pro v testatur E ty mologici auctor 
6 in Kohg. Sic Latini jecur a Gr. tjirap, et scintilla, 
6 quasi spintilla, a o-irivtyp" 

The same writer has adduced other instances in 
which this interchange has taken place between the 
Greek and Latin. 



Lupus. 


kvKOg. 


Sepes. 


<TY]K0g. 


Spolia. 


GKvka. 


Vespas. 


a(f>v]Kag. 



Cognate liquids or semivowels are in many languages the fol- 
lowing. 

1, r, v. 

a Gerard. Joh. Vossii de Litterarum permutatione Tractatus, 
Etymol. Ling. Lat. prefix, p, 24. ed. Neap. 1762. 



46 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

" Maxime tamen locum id habet in iis vocibus, 
" in quibus juxta Ionicae et iEolicae dialecti proprie- 
" tatem, it transiit in k. 

Equus ab iEolico Ikkos pro iWof. 

Inquio ab iEolico evvUco — Gr. hveirw. 

Linguo ab iEolico Ac/aw — Gr. AeiWw vel a Ae/™, 

\ifA7ravoo. 
Qua ab Ion. kyj pro Gr. ir*\. 

Quatuor a neTTOpa, KeTTOpa. 

Quinque a nevTe, irefxire, /avK€. 

Quis a tis, Kig. 

Quoties ab Ionice kotc, Gr. irore. 
Quotus a kotos, pro ttotos. 

Sequor ab eKopoci pro evofmi G . 

The learned Edward Lhuyd has observed that a 
similar interchange of p and k takes place regularly 
between the Welsh and Erse dialects of the Celtic 
language. I shall cite his words and the evidence 
he adduces for this remark. 

" It is very remarkable that there are scarce any 
" words in the Irish, besides what are borrowed 
" from the Latin, or some other language, that be- 
" gin with p ; insomuch that in an ancient alpha- 
" betic vocabulary I have by me that letter is 
" omitted ; and it is no less observable that a consi- 
" derable number of those words, whose initial letter 
" in the British language is a p, begin in the Irish 
" with a k, or, as they constantly write it, with a c. 
" This partly appears by the following examples : 

Paul, W. a pole or stake, Kual, Ir. 

pA,, fa thing, part, share, \ Kod, Koda, 

( some, j Kiiyd. | 

c Voss. ubi sup. p. 24. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



47 



Pa? 




what ? 


Ka? 


Pask. 




Easter, 


Kasg. 


Pencas, 


Corn. 


Whitsuntide, 


Kaikis. 


Peiswin, 


W. 


chaff, 


Kaithsloan. 


Pesuch, 




a cough, 


Kasachd. 


Pen, 




a head, 


Keann. 


Puy, 




who? 


Kia? 


Puylh, 




sense or meaning, 


KiaL 


Plant, 




children, 


( Klann, and 
1 Kland. 


Plyv, 




feathers, 


Kluvv. 


Peduar, 




four, 


Kathair. 


Pymp, 




five, 


Kuig. 


Pair, 




a furnace or cauldr 


on, Kuir & Koire. 


Pren, 




a ton, 


Kran. 


Par, 




a couple, 


Koraid. 


Pridh, 




earth or clay, 


Kriadh. 


Praidh, 




a prey, 


Kreach. 


Pa raid, 




wherefore, 


K'red. 


Pryv, 




a worm, 


Kruv. 


Pob, 




every, 


Ceach or Gach. 



And sometimes in other parts of the words we 
find the same : as 

Yspydhad, a hawthorn, Skiathach, 

Map or Mab, a son, Mak. 

The preceding examples are quite sufficient to 
establish the fact asserted in the present section. 
We shall hereafter find the application of this re- 
mark. 



48 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

SECTION III. 

Of the interchange of sibilant and soft palatine consonants with 
gutturals or hard palatines. 

It has been customary in many languages, and in 
our own among others, to soften the guttural or hard 
palatine letters, or to interchange them with other 
elements of pronunciation which are termed sibilants 
and soft palatines. We substitute the ordinary ch 
in the place of the hard c, or the k of other cog- 
nate languages, and say church for kirk or kirche. 
The Italians pronounce Tschitschero, a name which 
the Greeks wrote Kucepcov. Secondly, many nations 
are in the habit of softening the g, and giving it the 
pronunciation of our j, as we are accustomed to do 
when this consonant comes before the vowels e and i. 
Thirdly, we shall find some languages converting 
the guttural aspirate % or ch into sh, as the Welsh 
substitute chwech for the Sanskrit shash. 

It will illustrate the two former of these changes to 
observe that the Sanskrit ^ — ch d is interchangeable 
in the regular inflexions of that language for ^ — k, 
and 3T — j likewise for 3J — g. Thus, verbs beginning 
with k, in the reduplication of the initial, which in 
Sanskrit as in Greek is a character of the preter- 
perfect tense, substitute ch for k, and verbs begin- 
ning with g substitute j for that consonant. The 
following are examples. 

Root. Present. Preterperfect. 

^i kri, (to make) ^vUTrTj karoti ^^THC chakara. 

3| goi, (to sing) ^TRm, gayati 3FTT, jagau. 

d Ch, as in cherry. 



TIIK CELTIC NATIONS. M) 

We cannot find a parallel fact in the Sanskrit 
language for the third remark, which respects the 
interchange of the aspirate sibilant for the aspirate 
guttural, because the Sanskrit has no consonant ana- 
logous to the Greek %ror the Welsh ch. 

The preceding remarks will be more perspicuous 
if we place these changes in a tabular form, as fol- 
lows ; 

^i, k, or c, or q — interchanged for ^T, ch. 

sometimes for ST sh v ^T sh, or ?f s. 

^T g, for 3T j. 

y? or ch aspirate guttural, for ST sh, ^" sh, or ^T s. 

It must be observed that the Greek BT and Z^ra 
are to be included in many instances among the pa- 
latine letters, and fall under the same rules of per- 
mutation. E7 is sometimes represented in Sanskrit 
by %$ ksh, but frequently by the simple character 
corresponding with sh. Z^t«, when it is the cha- 
racteristic of verbs making the future in fey, may 
properly be considered as a palatine letter, and it 
will be found represented in Sanskrit by palatine 
consonants. 

I shall exemplify these remarks by some lists of 
words in addition to those instances already disco- 
vered among the numerals, in which the above- 
mentioned interchanges occur. The first series con- 
tains examples of soft palatines in one language and 
hard palatines or gutturals in another ; the second, 
cases in which j is substituted for hard g, and the 
third, words in which sibilants appear in the place 
of gutturals or hard palatines. 

E 



50 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

I. Words in which ^ — ch or ch soft is inter- 
changed with hard palatine letters. 

Words having of ch or ch soft. Words having hard palatines. 

^ cha, and, subjoined ) . _, 

,, r Kai, Gr. que, Lat. 

to the noun, J ^ 

chatur, quatuor. 

locha, look, Eng. 



chatai, \ 
vacet, ) 



looketh. 



lochayati, lucet, Lat. 

lochan, (an eye) lhygad, i. e. lhugad, W. 

vachas, voces, Lat. 

vachati, orl Paget, i. e. £«*€/, unde 

vakti, j i9a?/f. 

chyotati, yeverou, yjeerat. 

richch'hati, S. ) f opeyerou. 



) 



reacheth, Eng. j (erreicht, Germ, 

uchcha and 1 , . , ( uch, uchel, W. 

uchchah, ) (hoch, Germ, 

uchchata, (arrogance) uchad, W. (act of rising.) 

church, Kvpioucvj, kirche, &c. 

II. The following are examples of j or 3f in 
Sanskrit supplying the place of y or g in Greek and 
other European words. 

Sanskrit. European languages. 

januh, genu, ydw 9 knee. 

janus, (birth,) yovog. 

jani, ywYj. 

jarami, yqpwh I grow old. 

jaran, yepwv. 

jarati, ■ ypavg. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



51 



jarjati, 
jagaras, 

jatus, 

taijatai, he sharpens. 

ajah, 

raj am, 



jurgat. 

eyprjyopos. 
begotten, yerys. 
Oyyerai, 
ouya 9 goat, 
regem. 



III. Instances of sibilant consonants interchanged 
for gutturals e . 



Sibilants. 




Gutturals. 


dresh, root. 




SepKtiv. 


dadarsha, 




^e^opKa. 


dansh, root, 




SaKveiv. 


danshati, 




SaKvei. 


mishrayatai, 




fjLio-y erect. 


mishrum, 




mixtum, 


ashwah or eshuus 


) f equus. 


asb, (Persian) 


1 


(each, (Erse) 


shwashurum, 




socerum. 


shwashrus, 




socrus. 


pashus, 




pecus. 


swasaram, 


) 




sororem, 

sch wester, Germ. 

suir, Erse 


i 


f khauhir, Pers. 
Ikhwaer, Welsh. 


sister, 


J 




^poaog, 




druchd, (Erse.) 


seta, Lat. 




kaishah, Sansk. 


suess, Germ. Sweet, 


chwys, W. 


silex, Lat. 




X«A/f. 


sch wan, Germ. Swan 


KVKVOg. 



e The words in the left hand columns not otherwise specified, 
and neither English, nor Latin or Greek, are Sanskrit. 

E 2 



52 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

short, Eng. curtus, court, 

chien, French. canis. 

sus, Lat. ) ( khuk, Pers. 

if, Or. ) jhwch, Welsh. 



SECTION IV. 

Of the relations of the aspirate. — Of the substitution of the as- 
pirate in several languages for S and for F. — Of the aspirate 
as a guttural or hard palatine. 

The state of Greek words beginning with the 
aspirate, or with the digamma, has long been an 
object of attention among grammarians. Some of 
the facts connected with this subject are capable of 
elucidation by a reference to the laws of the Celtic 
language. 

It was observed by Edward Lhuyd, that H is 
never the first or proper initial of any word in the 
Erse language, but that words beginning with F or 
with S change that initial according to the laws of 
permutation peculiar to this dialect of the Celtic 
into H. Hence he infers with probability, that in 
the primitive form of these words they began with 
F or S, and that cognate words which begin with 
H in other languages have lost their proper initial. 
In like manner some Greek words now beginning 
with an aspirate have lost an original digamma, 
while others, as hra and ef, corresponding with 
septem and sex in Latin, and with sapta and shash 
in Sanskrit, have in all probability lost an initial S*. 

a Lhuyd remarks with great probability, that such pheno- 
mena indicate the former existence of a system of permutation 
in other languages, similar to that which is still preserved in 
the Celtic dialects. 



THE CELTIC NxVTIONS. 



53 



The following words, collected by Lhuyd, are 
cognate in the Welsh and Erse languages. In the 
Erse they begin with S in their primitive form, and 
with H in a secondary form, or in regimine. In 
Welsh they have only one beginning, with H. I 
add a third column to shew the correspondences 
presented by other languages, or merely to point out 
the meaning. 



] 


Irse. 


Welsh. 


Other languages 


IMeaiiing. 


saileog < 


3r haileog 


helig 


salix L. 


willow. 


salan or 


halan 


halen 


sal, a\s 


salt. 


sailte or 


hailte 


halht 


salitus 


salted. 


saith or 


haith 


haid 




swarm. 


saith or 


haith 


hath 




thrust. 


sav or h 


A 

av 


hav 




summer. 


savail 01 


• havail 


havail 


similis 


like. 


skoiltea 




holht 




cleft. 


se 




e 




he. 


seavak 
sealv 




hebog 
helva 




hawk, 
herd. 


sealva 
sealga 
sealgaire 


> 


helu 
hela 
helliwr 




possession. 

hunting. 

huntsman. 


sean 




hen 


senex 


old. 


seasg 
seile 




hesg 
haliu 


sedge and 
saliva. 


hedge. 


seol 
si 




huyl 
hi 


a sail, 
sie, she. 




sin 
slth 




hyn 

hedh and ) 

hedhwch j 




this, 
peace. 


sil 




hil 




seed. 


sir 

soinean 




hir 
hinon 




long. 
J fair wea- 
1 ther. 


suan 




hyn 


somnus, vnvos, 









E 3 



54 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



Sometimes the H in Welsh is lost, as in 
segh ych ox 

suas yuch super, virep. 

silastar elestyr flag. 

It would be easy to point out numerous instances 
of a parallel description, in which words beginning 
in Greek with the aspirate have in Latin and other 
languages either S or the F — V b . The following 
are examples chiefly from Vossius. 

1. Aspirate substituted for S c . 
sus. 



«\ 

<•/ 

ayio$ 9 

apnea, 

Yj[xiav 9 

ClpfAOS, 
€p7TvXX0V y 

OfxaKog, 

ICTTCC, l(TTY)fJU, 
€KUpO$, 



serpo. 

sal. 

salis. 

sacer. 

sarpo. 

satis. 

se. 

secus. 

sedes. 

semis. 

sequi. 

sermo. Scaliger. 
f serpyllum. Servius in 
t Eclog. 2. 

sexus. Festus. 

similis. 

sisto. 

socer. 



b Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik, p. 583. 

c Lacones, Argivi, Pamphylii et Eretrienses 2 eximere solent 
atque aspirationem ejus loco sufficere ; ita fiovaa iis est paa : 
fiovariKrj, fKOLKa ; nao-a, naa ; fiovcroa, /3ovoa : 7rot^<rat, noirjai, &C. 
Voss. vid. Prise. L. V. Lhuyd, p. 30. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 55 



(KVpa, 


socrus. 


o\og, bkov, 


solus, 


V7rap, 


sopor. 


■jpafj 


sorex. 


i$poo$, and v$(op, 


sudor. 


cii, 


sui. 


6\ko$, 


sulcus. 


r \ 
V7T0, 


sub. 


V7T€p, 


super. 


€7TTa, 


septem. 




sex. 


vTrepfiiog, 


superbus 


V7TT10$, 


supinus. 




suus. 


5a^, 


sylva. 



2. Instances of the rough aspirate substituted for 
F or V d . 



€G7T€pa 9 




vespera. 


e/Aw, 




volvo. 


f Ev€T0f, 




Venetus, 


'EXia, 




f Velia. Serv. ad iEneid. 
t 1. 359. 






etTTtav, 




festum. 


Ofjukia, 




familia. 


apfxot, 




ferme. Scaliger. 


epfxa and ) 
elpfxog, ) 




firmus. 






In other instances the Greek language seems even 


to have lost the 


spiritus asper, and pronounces such 


words with the 


gentle 


\ aspiration e , as in the fol- 


lowing. 






d Chiefly from G. I. Vossius, ubi supra. 


e Grimm, th. i. 


P. 587. 


E 4 



56 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



a\$o$, Dorice, 

V 
€7T0>, 

> 


pro aXvog, 


saltus. 
sequo, dico 
si. 


avev, 




sine, 
sino. 



apio-Tepoc, sinister. 

op(pea), v. po(f>€w, sorbeo. 

In these instances the spiritus lenis stands, where 
probably the spiritus asper once stood, for an ori- 
ginal S. In the following, the digamma was ori- 
ginally the initial letter : 

cap, ver. 

f videmus, Sansk. vidmus, 
scimus. 

a\6iry%, vulpes. 

haXog, vitulus. 

Perhaps we may trace the effect of a similar dis- 
position to soften and obliterate the initial S in the 
following words beginning with consonants. 

yXa<f>u), SCalpo. 

ypa<fiu>, scribo, 

ykvcfxo, SCulpo. 



6fA€V, 



H representing a hard palatine or guttural conso- 
nant in the Teutonic languages. 

In the foregoing paragraph it has been shewn, 
that the rough aspirate or H represents in several of 
the Indo-European languages, a sibilant, or the 
digamma or vau. Thus the Welsh, as well as the 
Greek language, drops the S or the F entirely, and 
substitutes the aspirate in words which originally 
had either S or F for their initial, or which appear 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



57 



to have had one of them, as far as can be judged 
from the cognate languages : while in the Erse the 
aspirate is still used as a regular inflection of words 
properly beginning, and yet often retaining the ori- 
ginal S or F. I shall now shew, that in the Latin 
as well as in the Teutonic languages, H is the sub- 
stitute for, or is to be considered as, a radical hard 
palatine or guttural. It stands for k, g, or ch. 

In the following words H in Latin seems to be a 
substitute for the Greek X f . 



hiems, 




X € ¥*»s- 


halo, 




yaXw. 


hara, 




X° r P°S' 


heri, olim hesi, 


%ecr/, unde %0€*\ 


hio, hisco, 




yaw, ya<JKW. 


hir, 




x e <>- 


hirundo, 




yzXithv, 


hortus, 




yoprog. 


humi, 




XafJ-ai. 


humilis, 




yapakog. 


humor, 




XVfW- 


veho, 




FoX$. 


In the following 


instances the Teutonic languages 


substitute H 


for 


a palatine in Greek and Latin 


words?. 






claudus, 




halts, halz, halt, (lame.) 


Kavvaj3i$ 9 




hanpr, hanaf, hemp. 


caput, 




haubith, houbith, haupt 


Kaptiia, COr, 




haerto, herza, heart. 



f G. I. Vossius, ubi supra. 

£ The list is taken from Dr. Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Gram- 
matik. The Teutonic words are Mceso- Gothic, Old High Ger- 
man, and English. 



58 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



kvqm, canis, 


hunths, hund, hound. 


K0l\0$, 


hoi, hole, hollow. 


celare, 


hilan, heln. 


KaXafxoc, calamus, 


halam, halm, 


Kaprog, Kaprepos, 


hardus, hart. 


cornu, 


hatirn, horn. 


collum, 


hals. 


KpVfAO?, 


hrim, rhyme, (old Norse.) 


KXateiv, 


hlahan. (Goth.) 


Kpa%6iV 9 


hrakjan. (Goth.) 


JifAeSTtyft 


hleftus. (Goth.) 


lux, (i. e. luks,) 


liuhad, light, licht, 


oikos, 


veihs, (Goth.) house. 


tacere, 


thahan, dagen. 


socer, 


svaihra. (Goth.) 


In Sanskrit we often find ^ — H, corresponding to 


the r in 


Greek words. 


maha, 


peya. 


ahan, or ehon, 


» / 
eyccv. 



SECTION V. 

Of the interchange of dental and sibilant letters. 

In a variety of languages, either for the sake of 
euphony, or from caprice or accident, sibilant letters 
have been interchanged with dentals. The conver- 
sion of the Greek sigma into tau is familiar to all 
classical readers. The use of the double tt instead 
of the double a a- is said to have been introduced in 
Athens by Pericles, but it probably preexisted as a 
custom somewhere, otherwise it would have been 
too great an innovation. It was probably a Boeo- 
tian habit, for the Boeotians said avpiTTeiv instead of 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 59 

avpi&iv, or the iEolian avpiacreiv, and 07tXittco for oicklty. 
The interchange of aa- and f for tt is a well known 
dialectic variety in the Greek language. The single 
t was also put for a by the iEolians and Dorians, as 
(par), "| r <f>a(Ti. 

> for J „ 

€7T€T0V, €7T€(70V. 

norei^av, J V. iroveiftav. 

The late Attics adopted this custom, and said tyj- 
fj.epov, iA€Tav\o$ 9 for aYjfxepov, ^eaavkog a . 

In the Teutonic languages the frequent use of s 
and z in the one class, and of t by the other, has 
always been a characteristic distinction of the idioms 
which belong to the High and Upper German divi- 
sion, and of those allied to the Platt-Deutsch or 
Lower German dialects. For water in English and 
Holland-Dutch and Platt-Deutsch, the High-Dutch 
has wasser ; for aut, aus ; for sweat, schweiss ; for 
foot, fuss ; for sweet, suss ; for let, lass. This fact 
is so well known, that it is superfluous to dwell 
upon it. 



SECTION VI. 

Of the substitution of R for S. 

The interchange of s and r is very frequent in 
many Indo-European languages. 

Among the Greeks it is said that the Lacedaemo- 
nians substituted p for <r, and probably other Do- 
rians had the same custom. For 7mro$ 9 novg 9 Qeog, nous, 
they said "nnrop, nop, aiop, no'ip b . The interchange of 

a Matthise's Grammar, ed. i829 ? . p. 34. 
*> Ibid. p. 33. 



60 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

pa- for pp was much more frequent ; it is, at least, 
more commonly seen in books, pa- being peculiar to 
the Attic dialect. 

We learn from Quintilian, Varro, and Festus, 
that the Romans substituted r in a great many- 
words for s, which had been more anciently used. 
According to the last mentioned writer the ancients 
wrote majosibus, meliosibus, lasibus, fesiis, for ma- 
joribus, melioribus, laribus, and feriis. 

It has been observed, that r is the most recent 
form in all these instances, and s the most ancient c . 
In the very oldest specimen of Latinity that is ex- 
tant, and which has been ascribed to the age of Ro- 
mulus, viz. a hymn of the Fratres Ar vales, engraved 
on a stone which was discovered A. D. 218, are 
found these words, " Enos Lases juvate," mean- 
ing, in all probability, " Nos Lares juvate d ." It is 
said, indeed, that the letter r was unknown to the 
older Latins, who used s instead of it, till the time 
of Appius Claudius Csecus, who introduced the r. 

The following are examples of the substitution of 
r for s, in which we can trace both forms in the 
Latin language. 



assus, 


arsus. 


robur, 


robus, unde robu* 


honor, 


honos. 


arbor, 


arbos. 


pignora, 


pignosa. ^ 


plurima, 


plusima. > Festus, 


holera, 


helesa. J 



c Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik. Bopp's Conjugationsystem 
der Sanskritsprache. 

d Lanzi Saggio di Ling. Etrusca, t. i. p. 142. Adelung's 
Mithridates, th. ii. p. 460. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



M 



ara, 


asa. 




arena, 


asena. Varro. 


carmen, 


casmen. 


feriae, 
lares, 


fesiae.) r . 
. [-Varro 11 . 
lases. ) 


erit, 


esit. 


Anrelii, 


Auselii. 


Furii, 


Fusii. Quintilian. 


Papirii, 


Papisii. 


Valerii, 


Valesiir 




labor, 
clamor, 


labos. 
clamos. 


^Quintilian 


vapor, 


vapos. J 





The same change may be inferred to have taken 
place in all words which take r in the increment in- 
stead of s ; as, acus, pecus, foedus, pignus. 

The Latins substituted r for s in other words 
cognate with the Greek ; as 

celer for *-eA^. 
cruor — Kpvos. 

The importance of this observation will hereafter 
be apparent, when we come to trace the relationship 
of Latin words with those of other languages. We 
shall find r frequently substituted in the former for 
an s or some equivalent in the Latin, and the re- 
semblance is more decided between such words 
when we restore the original s. Thus sororem, per- 
haps originally sosorem, is almost identified with 
the Sanskrit swasaram. The same change of letters 
has an useful application to the inflections of verbs, 
as we shall have occasion to observe. 



e Vossius, ubi sup. 



62 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

SECTION VII. 

Of the relation of different vowels and diphthongs to each other 
in different languages. — Synoptical table of letters inter- 
changeable between different languages. 
The vowels are by no means to be discarded in 
tracing the derivations of words and the relations of 
languages, as some learned philologists have erro- 
neously maintained. If any proof is necessary of 
this remark, a very striking and sufficient one may 
be found in Dr. Jacob Grimm's analysis of the Teu- 
tonic verbs. 

The first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, 3f , or the 
akara, which we generally represent by a, is a short 
vowel, and, as it has been already observed by Pro- 
fessor Bopp, corresponds in different instances with 
nearly all the short vowels of the Greek and Latin 
languages. It is easy to point out many examples 
in which it occupies the place of the short e and of 
the Greek epsilon, and the short 6 and omicron, as, 
dashan, S. Ukcl 9 decern, 

ashta, S. oW«, octo. 

It corresponds also very frequently with the Latin 
u before s or m in the terminations of words. The 
endings of Sanskrit adjectives and nouns are fre- 
quently in (3f :) or (3f^J) for the masculine, (3ff) 
for the feminine, and (3f or 3f *T) for the neuter : 
these are most correctly represented by ah or us or 
o$ 9 a, and um or ov. Thus 

shabiis, shuba, shabum, is 
kol\o$, Ka\yj 9 KaXov. 

Instances may be found in which 3f corresponds 
with other short vowels, but they are not so fre- 
quent ; as 

agnis, ignis, fire. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 6ft 

The Sanskrit 3fT or long a is most frequently 
found to occupy the place of 6 or co in Latin and 
Greek words ; as in 

dadami, ^i^fxt. 

The other Sanskrit vowels, i and u, long and 
short, correspond with those nearly related to them 
in sounds; viz. the long and short i or Iutx, and the 
long and short u or tytXov. 

OF DIPHTHONGS. 

The semivowels 2f — ya, and ^T — va, or wa, and 
the diphthongs T^ — ai, and T£ — oi, correspond with 
the Greek and Latin vowels; thus, 

2J — ya, and T^— ai, with ai Gr. and e Lat. 
<T — wa, and"Q^ — oi, with a and 6. 
Examples of the former kind occur in the ter- 
minations of verbs in the middle and passive voices 
in Sanskrit and Greek. They are thus : 
in Sanskrit. in Greek, 

ai, \kai. 

sai, ai and aou. 

tai, rat. 

2J — ya, is used in Sanskrit where at occurs in 
Greek and e in Latin, in very many cases. One 
example occurs in the form of verbs having in San- 
skrit a future signification, but used in Greek and 
Latin with a preterite potential sense. Thus from 
the root Bhu or Fuo, we have 

Bhavishyami — fuissem \ related to ( o-atfxi. 

yasi es >the Greeks at$. 

yati et J form in \.ou. 

^T — va or wa, ^7 — va or wa. 
swanum, S. sonum. L. 

shwashurum, socerum. 



64 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



vacham, vocem. 

vakshatai, av&Tou. 

swasaram, sororem. 

I shall conclude the foregoing remarks on substi- 
tutions or interchanges of letters in different lan- 
guages by an attempt at a table of correspondences. 



JO 

'2 












CO 






i 


Cm 


«+H 


«m 


42 


4* 


43 

43 cc 


co 43 


42 


o3 


U 


42 
42 










42 43 


X 43 




o 


8 


o 






42 


8 8 


8 8 




J* 


4= 


4* 






U 


CO «+h 


co cm 
















,__ 


















e$ 


















m 




4 
1 


a* 


> 

8 

42 


PL 


&U0 


&J0 


6JD 


3 

bo 

■a x 


J- 
O 

* 
J3 bJO 




o 
















c 


42 . 
















I 


3 a ro 




3 






h 








o*a g 




cr 






8 

O co 


y C+_| 


O Cm 




uAO 


6M 


cJ" 


o M 


&J0 


c/T >" 


co" > 
















^ 


b ^ 


•% 








t- 






. 


. 


05 








t» 










1 




<£L 




«\ \/> 




X^, 


X 13 


O O 


^ 


«v 




b „ 






- '-N 


r- s^-v 




t? 


-9- <£> 


i- 


b <u 


^ 


5C *T 


ST w 


X^X^ 
















43 




.2 


9* 




42 




T 


i 


CO 

1 




<J2 


1 


pq 


1 




i 


1 


B 




•1 


I 


if 

J* 


42 
4* 

1 


43 
u 

1 


T 


ce 

1 


■a 

41 


1 

X) 


^« 




A 43 


_!2 






42 


4= 




'A 


9^ 


5J 


o 




"P 


CO 


CO 


CO 


•^ 




1 


[T3 ^d 




1 ^ 


1 ^ 


1 




J- 


tJ- 




P9 


E?" 


feT~ 


£ 



THE CELTIC NATIONS 65 



CHAPTER III. 

Proofs of common origin in the vocabulary of the Celtic and 
other Indo-European languages. 

Section i. Names of persons and relations. 

IT is now time to examine how far the Celtic and 
other Indo-European languages are related to each 
other in their vocabularies, or by the possession of 
a considerable number of common roots or primitive 
words. From the comparison to be instituted for 
this purpose, it is obviously requisite to exclude all 
such words as from their nature appear likely to 
have been introduced at a late period by foreign 
commerce, by conquest, or with the adoption of a 
new religion or system of manners. I must confine 
my observations to the original materials of speech, 
and to expressions which denote simple and primi- 
tive ideas. 

On entering on this part of my inquiry, I shall 
take some of the groupes of words collected in the 
Amera Cosha, or Sanskrit Vocabulary of Amera 
Sinha, and try whether the corresponding terms in 
the Celtic dialects have any resemblance to them a . 
In general, I shall place the Sanskrit words first, 
and then the Celtic, subjoining any terms which ap- 
pear to be of cognate origin in the other European 
languages. 

a I do not confine myself to the particular vocables given in 
the Cosha, when other genuine words can be found which are 
more to my purpose, nor do I think it necessary to follow the 
exact order of arrangement observed by the author of that vo- 
cabulary. 



66 



EASTERN ORIGIN' OF 



]Vr^a,-..'.-^w, 



' 



I. Words denoting persons and family or other 
relations b . 

3TPT — jani, (a woman.) 

Celtic, gean, Erse. (Lhuyd.) SK^O 

Russian, Jena ; Gr. Tvvyj ; Pers. Zen, Zenne. 

^ H I — Varna, (a woman.) (Am. Cosh.) 

Celtic, fem, Erse. (Lh.) 

^ H«lT — vamani, (a woman 

Celtic, femen, Erse. (Lh.) 

Latin, foemina. 

^ MrlT — vanita, (a woman.) 

Celtic, Bean and Bhean or vean, Erse ; benw and 

benyw, Welsh. In regimen venw and ve- 

nyw. 
Greek, Byva et Bdva, Boeotice vel Dorice, est mu- 

lier vel filia (Salmasius, p. 402. de Hellenis- 

tica) Bccvyreg, (Boeot. pro ywaTices,) mulieres. 

^TX! — virah, a hero, warrior ; vir. 
Celtic, fear, Erse c ; man. 

Gwr and WE, Welsh, man; pi. gwyr and 

wyr; viri. 
Hence, gwraig and wraig, a woman. Com- 
pare wr and wraig with vir and vi- 
rago or virgo. 

N. B. Frag, Erse for gwraig; Germ. frau. Com- 
pare the Greek Ftjpcos, heros, with fear. 

•1 < I — narah, man, also Lord, applied to the Deity. 
Celtic, Ner, lord. 
Greek, awjp. 

3. There are three words in the Amera Cosha 
corresponding with the word father. These are 

b Amera Cosha, book ii. chap. vi. sect. i. 






THE CELTIC NATIONS. 67 

r| |rl, ^5l«ich: and IMriT. One of these, janakah, is 
derived from a root allied to the etymon of genitor 
in Latin, which will be compared with its cognates 
hereafter. The other two may be traced as follows: 

r\ |c| : — tatah, plural tatah. 

Celtic, tad, plur. tadan, Welsh; tat, Armoric; 
taz, Corn. ; taid, a grandfather, Welsh. 
Cognates : ata, Moeso-Goth. ; aita, Cantab. 
\ HrJ — pitre, nom. pita, ace. pitaram. 
Cognates : Persian, pader. 
Gr. & Lat. Traryp, Trarepx, pater, patrem. 
Teut. dial, vater, faeder, father. 
Celtic, athair d , Erse. 

H |rj — matre, nom. mata, ace. mataram. 

Persian, mader ; Russian, mater. 

Celtic, mathair, Erse. 

Gr. & Lat. pvjTvjp, mater. 

Teutonic, meder, mutter, mother, &c. 

^TJrJ — bhratre, nom. ^j |r1 1, bhrata. 

The nearest cognates are, 
Russian, brat'. 
Celtic, brawd, (Welsh, in plur. brodyr ; compare 

the Sanskrit plural bhratarah.) 
Persian, braudur. 

Teutonic, brothar, (Goth.) bruder, brother, &c. 
Celtic, brathair, Erse. 
Latin, frater. Compare fyaTccp. 

d That the word athair is really of cognate origin with pater, 
and other European words of the same stock, appears probable 
from a comparison of the following : 

athair pater pitre. S. 

mathair mater matre. S. 

brathair frater bhratre. S. 

F 2 






68 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

£^1J — swasre, a noun of the same form, making 
in the accusative swasaram, sororem. 
This word has two sets of cognates; one, in which 
the sibilants are preserved as such ; the other in 
which they are converted into gutturals, according 
to the mode of permutation illustrated in chap. ii. 
sect. 3. 

Latin, soror, ace. sororem, probably sosor, soso- 
rem in an older form e , is nearly allied 
to swasaram. 
Some languages alter the middle s by adding t ; as, 
Russian, sestra; Teutonic dialects, suistar (Moeso- 
Gothic), sch wester, sister. 
Others change s for h, and finally omit it, as 
Celtic, Siur, Erse. 

Secondly, 
Persic, Khauher. 

Celtic, Chwaer, (i. e. khwaher) Welsh ; chuar, 
Armor.; hor, huyr, Corn. 
The Greek has no similar word. 

<5T^rJ — duhitre, nom. duhita, ace. duhitaram, 

(daughter.) 
Greek, 6vyarY]p f Qvydrepa. 

Pers. dokhter ; Goth, dauhtar ; Germ, tochter. 

Celtic, Dear, (dehar?) Erse. 

The Latin has no cognate word. 
W^<t — swasurah, a father-in-law; accus. swasu- 

rum. 
Latin, socer, socerum. 

Russian, svekor'; Goth, svaihra; Germ, sch waeher. 
Celtic, (converting sibilants as usual into guttu- 
rals,) Chwegrwn, Welsh; Huigeren, Corn. 
e Chap. ii. sect. 6. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. ft 

^PJ; — swasruh or shwashrus, a mother-in-law. 

Latin, socrus. 

Celtic, Chwegyr, pi. chwegrau, Welsh; hueger, Corn. 

«1^, — naptre, a grandson, and naptri, a grand- 
daughter. 

Latin, nepos and neptis, meaning also in a later 
sense, nephew and niece. 

Celtic, Nai, Welsh ; noi, Corn. ; ni, Arm. for ne- 
phew; and Nith, Welsh; noith, Corn.; 
nises, Arm. for niece. 

N. B. pt is mutable into th in Welsh, according to 
an observation in chap. i. sect. 2. 

<5^T, — daivre, a brother-in-law, or husband's or 
wife's brother. 
This word has no analogue, as far as I know, in 
any of the Celtic or Teutonic dialects. 
Greek, tiarjp ; Russian, diever' ; Latin, levir. 

^XK — vangshah, offspring. 

Persic, pachah, (a child,) pi. pachegaun. 

Celtic, bachgen, Welsh. 

The preceding words are the principal part of 
those by which family relations and the distinctions 
of persons are signified in the Indo-European lan- 
guages. The greater part of them appear evidently 
to exist in the Celtic dialects under a peculiar form, 
which is the guarantee of their genuineness. That 
the Celtic words are really cognates of the Persian, 
Russian, Greek, Latin, German, and Sanskrit words 
no doubt can be entertained. 



f 3 



70 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



SECTION II. 

Names of the principal elements of nature, and of the visible 
objects of the universe \ 

Light, Flame. 

ZsTIW — Jwala, also Jwalah. 

Celtic, Gwawl, goleu, Welsh; golou, Arm. 
The Sun. 

^T^I — hailih, or hailis. 

Celtic, Haul, pronounced hail, Welsh; houl, 
heul, Corn. ; heol, Arm. 

Greek, 'AeXiog, i. e. haelios ; r/ EA>y, solar heat. 

Note. The spiritus asper being changed for S in 
conformity with an observation in sect 4. of chap. 2. 
we have Saul for haul. Compare sol, Lat. ; in Russ. 
solnste. 

Another Sanskrit word for sun is *J*J I sunuh. 
Comp. Sunno, M. Goth, and Germ, sonne, sun. 
The Moon. 



cRS^T — klaida ; also klaidu. 
Celtic, lheuad, or lhhyad, (pronounce nearly as 
chleuad,) Welsh. Also 
glauh, which by Sandhi becomes 

glaur. 

Celtic, lhoer (chloer), Welsh; laor, Arm.; lar, 
Corn. Compare luan, Erse, with lima, 
Russ. and lima, Latin. 



5k- 



Star. 
rTRJ- 
Greek, 



tara. 



reipeov ; Welsh, seren ; (pi. reipea, Welsh 
ser and syr.) Armoric, steren. ; Germ, 
stern. Goth, stairno ; Pers. sitauren ; 

a Amera Cosh, book i. sect, i and 2. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 71 

Latin, stella (perhaps a diminutive form 
of stera, as tenella from tenera). Com- 
pare also aarepa, and astra. 

«TH: — nabhah, sky, atmosphere, aether, heaven. 

Celtic, Nev. Welsh and Corn. ; neav, Erse. 

Russ. nebo. 

^T^TT — nabha, a cloud, rain : nabholaya, smoke. 

Celtic, Nivwl, (mist, cloud,) Welsh; Neal, Erse. 

Germ, nebel; Gr. vecpekvj, ve<pa$; Lat. nebula, nubes. 

33^T — udum, water; whence 3^ — unda, to 
wet or moisten. 

Russ. voda, water; Pol. woda. 

Latin, udus, uda, udum, and unda. 

Goth, wato ; A. S. waeter, water. Compare wet, 
weather. 

Greek, vlcop, i. e. Fvlup, or vudor. 

Celtic, dwvyr, pi. duvrau. . 

^~_ dyu. (a day.) 

Celtic, Di and dia, Erse ; dydh, Welsh, 
Latin, dies. 

Goth, dags ; A. S. daeg, day. 
[•1X11 — msa, night. 

Celtic, Nos, Welsh. Notch', Russian. 
More remote are the following : 

Nochcl, Erse ; nahts, Goth. ; nacht, night, Germ. ; 

vvf, nox. 
*TmC' — mirah, ocean, sea. — > ■ 
Celtic, M or, Welsh; muir, Erse. More, Russian ; 

meer, mere, Germ. D. ; mare, Lat. 
t|*TT — dhara, earth. 
Celtic, Daiar, Welsh, (in regim. dhaiar.) 

there is another Welsh word, tir. Compare 

terra, Lat. ; airtha, Goth. ; talamh and tellur, 

Erse, with tellurem, Lat. 
F 4 



T2 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



<H\y— 

Celtic, 
Greek, 
Celtic, 


aashtra, ether, air. 
athair, Erse. 

aMUvjp — aidpia, avjp. 
awyr, Welsh ; aer, Lat. 


Latin, 
Moeso-Goth 

55- 


agnis, or agnih, (fire.) 
Ignis ; Welsh, tan, i. e. taan. 
. fon. 
druh and drus, (a tree ;) derucht, Pers. ; 


Apve, Gr. ; 


Derw, Welsh; dair, Erse (an oak tree.) 

im 



SECTION III. 

Names of animals. 
Of the terms for different species of animals, it 
appears that few, comparatively, are common to the 
Sanskrit and the European languages. Nor is this 
circumstance difficult of explanation : emigrating 
tribes in seeking a new climate, and leaving behind 
them a great part of the stock of animals for which 
they had previously names, are obviously under the 
necessity of inventing other significant appellations 
for those peculiar to their new country. In this re- 
spect the Celtic dialects are under the same circum- 
stances as the other European languages ; and it may 
be clearly shewn that they partake of a common 
stock of terms with these languages ; for though the 
European idioms differ from the Sanskrit, they have 
a common stock of such terms among themselves. 
There are, however, some instances of agreement 
with the Sanskrit, and this remark includes nearly 
all the domestic animals. In all the following in- 
stances the Celtic terms are cognate with those be- 
longing to the other European languages, and in some 
they bear a remarkable resemblance to the Sanskrit. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 73 

The interchange of sibilant with guttural conso- 
nants is here to be observed, as in the instances before 
cited. Refer to numbers 1, 2, and 3. 

Dog. 

Sanskrit, Shunah and shun! ; shiini, bitch. 
Celtic, Ki, pi. cwn, Welsh ; chana, Erse, 
Greek, kvuv, pi. Kvveg ; Lat. canis ; Goth, hunths, 

hound. 
Hog and Sow. 

Sanskrit, Shukarah, (hog;) Pers. khuk, (hog or 

sow.) 
Celtic, Hwch, Welsh, (sow.) 
Greek, r T$- ; Lat. sus. 

Horse. 

Sanskrit, ashwah or eshuus. 

Latin, (changing sibilants into gutturals,) equus. 

Greek, wires, Mo\. 7kko$.(?) 

Celtic, Each, Erse ; asb, Pers. Also, 

Greek, Ka/3d\kYjg; Lat. caballus. 

Celtic, keffyl, Welsh ; caual, Arm. ; capul, Erse. 
Also, Pers. fars; Germ, ross; Eng. horse. 
Ass. 

Greek, ovog ; Lat. asinus. 

Celtic, Asyn, Welsh ; asal, Erse. 
Goat. 

Sanskrit, ajah and ch'haga ; Gr. alya. 

Latin, caper. 

Celtic, gavar, Welsh ; gobhar, Erse. 
Ram. 

Sanskrit, Uranah. 

Celtic, Hwrdh, Welsh; urdh, Arm.; hor and 
hordh, Corn. 

Latin, aries. 



74 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

Oxen. 

Sansk. Ukshan or uxan, ox or bull. 

Celtic, Ych, Welsh; agh, Erse; ochs, Germ. Also, 

Greek, j3ovg ; Lat. bos, boves. 

Celtic, Buw, Welsh ; bo, Erse. Also, 

Latin, bucula ; Welsh, buwch. 

Bull. 

Greek, ravpog ; Lat. taurus. 

Celtic, tarw, Welsh ; tarbh, Erse. (Compare Tor, 
Chaldee.) 

Cow. 

Sansk. Go ; Germ, kuh, cow. 

Fish. 

Greek, lyfivg (olim FiyQvg?) 
Latin, piscis. 

Celtic, Pysg, Welsh ; jasg, Erse. 
Germ, fisch, fish. 

Swan. 

Latin, olor. 

Celtic, alarch, Welsh ; eala, Erse. 

Pigeon. 

Latin, columba ; golub', Russian. 
Celtic, colommen, Welsh ; cwlm, Arm. ; colm, 
columan, Erse. 

Frog. 

Latin, rana. 

Celtic, kranag, Corn. ; ran, Arm. 

Fawn. 

Greek, e\a<po$. 
. Latin, hinnulus. 

Celtic, elain, Welsh. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



75 



Lamb. 

Greek, apog ; Latin, agnus. 

Celtic, oen, W. ; oan, Corn, and Arm. ; an, Erse 
Crane. 

Greek, yepavos ; Germ, krannich ; Eng. heron. 

Celtic, Garan, W.; and kryr, Erse, korr. 
Cuckow. 

Greek, kokkv%, Lat. cuculns. 

Celtic, Cog, W. ; chuach, Erse. 






PARAG. 2. 

The following list of terms, chiefly for inanimate 
objects, displays nearly the same degree of affinity as 
the preceding. 



Welsh. 


Erse. 


Greek. 


Other languages. 










Jdruh, Sansk. 


derw 


dair 




bpvs 


( (a tree) 


faw, fawydh 


faidhbhile 


(prjyos 


fagus, beech 


colhen, colh 






Kopvkos 


cornel tree 


Ihyren and ) 
Ihyriaid j 






keipiov 


lilium, lily 


lhech 


leac, 1 


liag 


kCOos 




lhaeth 


laith 




yakCLKTOL 


lac, lactis 


aradyr 






aporpov 


aratrum 


cwyr 


ceir or keir 




cera 


braich 






fipayi(t>v 


brachium 


lhwch 


loch 






lacus 


lhu and ) 

Ihuaws j 














kabs 


lludi, Russ. 


kentar (a ] 






i 




nail) (Lh.) f 






KtVTpOV 


( nomen 


enw 


ainm 




6vo\xa 


(naman S. 


m g 






aloka, Sansk. 


lux 


medh (mead) 






\xiQv (wine) 




mel 


mil 




fiikt 


mel 









76 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



Welsh. 


Erst'. 


Greek. 


Other langiia^cs. 


melin 


meile 


jJLVkoS 


mola 


dant 




ohovra 


r dent-em 

1 dantah, Sans. 


awr 


uair 


copa 


hora 


aur 


or 




aurum 


corn 




Ktpas 


cornu 


co ron 


choroin 




corona 


cybhigl 


chuvachail 




cubiculum 


rhyn (point) 


sron 


piv 




ysgraff J 
scaff Arm. j 


sgaffa 


aKCL($)7) 


scapha 


wr, wyr 


fear 




vir, viri 


wraig 


frag 




virago 


gwrach 




ypavs 




gwin, win 


fin 


Folvos 


vinum 


arriant 


airgidh 


apyvpiov 


argentum 


tervyn 


teor 


rip\ia 


terminus 


einion 


ineoin 


CLK[JL(t)V 


incus 


pen 


cean 


K€(f>akr) 


caput 


colovn 


colbh 




column us 


swn 


soin 


TOVOS 


sonus 


byw 


bio 


(3Cos 


vita 


halen 


salen 


h\s 


sal 


cader 


chathair 


KaOihpa 


chair (Eng.) 


sowdwl 


sael 


K€\r] 


( calcaneus 
1 heel. Eng. 


croen 


croiccionn 


Xpm 




erw 




apovpa 


arvum 


dor (W. and | 






f thur (Germ.) 


Armor. ) 


dorus 


Ovpa 


1 dwar (Sansk.) 


parth 


pairt 




parte 


creuan 




Kaprjvov 




mynydh 






( monte 
1 mountain 


fynnon 






fonte 


avon 


amhain 




arane 


tir 


tir 




terra 



TIIK CELTIC NATIONS. 



77 



Welsh. 


Erse. 


Greek. 


Other languages 




talamh 




tellus 


mor 


muir 




J mare, meer, 
(Germ. 


cylha 




no i\(a 




cylch 




KtpKOS 


( circulus, 
| circus 


deigryn 




haKpVOV 


lachryma 


eigion 




J)K€avbv 


oceanum 


hedhwch, pi. ] 








hedhychau > 




i](rvyj.a 




peace, quiet J 








hwyliau 






velae 


meidr 




ll€TpGV 




gwvr and ^ 






fverum and 


wvr ) 






( Veritas 


cariad 




Xapt? 


caritas 


cawr, a giant 




yavpos 


jghorah S. 

J hrvitvik a 



righ, a king 



| raj a Sansk. 
j regem Lat. 



SECTION IV. 

Verbal roots traced in the Celtic and other Indo-European 
languages. 

3T«T, Jan, a verbal root, whence the verbs 3T3Tf^T, 
jajanti, gignit, and jayatai meaning yiyve- 
rai, gignitur, he is born ; middle voice, jajana, 
yeyova. Hence the following nouns in Sanskrit. 

Janah, a man. 

Jani, a mother. 

Janus, birth. 

Janitre, a father. 

Janima, birth, procreation. 



78 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

In Greek, yevvdoo, yivofxai, yevv^fxa, ytvog, k. t. A. 
Latin, gigno, genius, genero, genitor, &c. 
Celtic, 

1. Welsh, geni, to be born. 

genedig, brought forth, or born, 
genedigaeth, birth, nativity, 
geneth, a girl, 
genid, birth, 
genilh, progeny. 

2. Erse, gein, offspring. 

geinim, to beget. 

geineighim, to bring forth, and 
geintear, gignitur. 

5J" — mre, a verbal root, whence the verb mriyatai, 
moritur, and the causal verb marayami ; mre- 
tus, mortuus ; marah, mors. 

The Greek language wants this word, unless the 
termination [xopog be derivable from it, though attri- 
buted to another verb. 

Latin, mori, mortuus, &c. 

Celtic, 

1. Welsh, marw, to die. 

marw, and marwawl, adj. dead, 
and deadly. 

2. Erse, marbh, i. e. marv, dead. 

meath, death ; and meatham, to die. 
Compare Heb. iltt, meth, dead. 
Sclavonic, Russian. 

umirat', to die ; umertii, dead, 
mor', mortality. 

3TT^ — Jiv, a root whence the verb 

jivami, I live, or jivati, vivit. 
jiva, life, (Am. Cosh.) 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 79 

In Latin, vivo, vita. 
Greek, /3/W, piow. 

Celtic, 

1. Welsh, BYW, or vyw, verb, to live. 

byw, adj. vivus 

bywyd, vita. 

by wau, to vivify. 

beua, (in Cornish,) to live. Lhuyd. 

2. Erse, beo, to live. 

beatha, life, vita. 

5TT — Jna, a verbal root, whence the verb janami, I 
know ; janati, he knoweth ; jnatus, 
jnata, jnatum, adj. notus, nota, notum. 
Greek, yvocc, and yvSfxt, yivwaKOo, yvoofxy], k. t. A. 
Latin, nosco, i. e. gnoo, gnotus, &c. 
German, &c. kennen, know, &c. 
Welsh, Gwn, I know. 

R|<v — Vid. a verbal root, whence the verb vaida, 
(oTSa,) in a preterite form, with a present signi- 
fication, I know, he knows; vaiditum, to know; 
also 

vidan, wise. 

vidanti, vaida, wisdom. 
Greek, e/Sew, ?&«, oTba. ol. FctMw, or Vei^eco. 

Latin, video. 

vide, to know; vidende, knowledge, 

Danish, 
Teutonic, <{ 

weise, wissen, German. 

wit, wot, wise, English. 

Celtic, 

1 Welsh, gwydh and wydh, knowledge. 

gwydhad and wydhad, to learn. 



80 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

gwydhai, gwydhawl, wise, 
gwybod, (irreg. verb,) whence, 
gwydhost and wydhost, knowest. 

2. Erse, fis, or fios, knowledge. (Lh.) 

fisc, a seer ; fiosaighim, to know. 

Here the roots are vid, S; /& or €/&; vid. Lat.; vid, 
wit, Teutonic ; wydh, or gwydh, Welsh. 

^\f, Budh, a root, whence the verb bodhati, he 
t knows or understands, 
budhah, a sage. 
Celtic, 

Erse, fodh, knowledge, 
fodhach, wise. 

N. B. The Sanskrit root, buda, to know, or discern, has an 
equally striking affinity with the Erse, fod, art or skill. 

3£, Shru, a verbal root signifying to hear. 
Infinitive mood, shrotum. 
shrutah, heard, adj. and part. 
In Sclavonic, changing I for r. 

Russian, sluch, hearing. 
slutat', to hear. 
In Greek, sibilants changed to gutturals, (ch. 2. 
sect. 3.) 

kXvco, to hear. 
k\vto$ 9 adj. 
In Celtic, 

Welsh, clyw, hearing. 

clust, an ear. 
Erse, cluinam, I hear. 

clu, hearing, fame. 

cluas, an ear. 

clotha, he heard. — Lh. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 81 

Here the roots in all the above languages are 
shru, slu, kXv, clu. 

^r^[ — loch, a verbal root, to which are referred 
the two following verbs : 

1. lochatai, he sees ; whence 

lochan, an eye. 
Greek, AezWe*, he looketh. 
English, looketh. 
Celtic, lhygad, W. an eye. 

2. Lochayati, lucet. 
Latin, lux, luceo. 
Teutonic, licht, light, &c. 

Celtic, Welsh, f . 

lhwg, light ; lhuched, lightning, 
lhewychu, to light, 
lhygu, to brighten, &c. 

ITSCT — Dresh, a verbal root, signifying 
to see. 
Pret. dadarsha, I saw. 
Greek, Sep/too. 

Se^opKa. 
Celtic, Erse, 

dearc, a verbal root, signifying sight, 

seeing, also an eye. 
dearcam, to see. 
dearcadh, seeing, sight. 
Welsh, 
drem, sight, &c. 
Here the roots are dresh, or rather dursh, $epK, 
and Celtic, dearc. 

K*)^ — lih, a verbal root, signifying to lick, 
1. person, proper form lihai, lingor. 

/ G 

1 



82 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

Greek, Ae/%ey. 

Latin, lingo. 

Goth, laigwan ; A. S. liccan. 

Eng. lick. 

Celtic, Welsh, 

lhyaw, lhyvu, to lick. 

llyviad, licking. 
Erse, lighim. 

do leigh se, he licked. 

Wf — sht'ha, in inflection t^|, sth'a, a verbal root, 
whence the verb tishtati, he stands, 
tishtami, I stand. 
Greek, lo-rapi or 7<jt^/, i. e. aiarafxi, and the obso- 
lete araco. 
Latin, sto, stare, status, sisto, &c. 
Teut. standan, (Goth.) stehen, stay, stand. 
Celtic, Erse, 

sta, stand, 

stadam, to stand, 

do stad se, he stood. 
Welsh, eistedh, to sit. 

, - eistydh, sitting. 

^58^ — rich'h, a verbal root, whence the verb rich- 
's 

ch'hati, he moves towards, reacheth, Rich- 
ch'hami. 
Greek, opeyeTat, ope%i$. 
Latin, porrigit. 
Teut. rakyan, (Goth.) reichen, erreicht, (Germ.) 

reacheth, (Eng.) 
Celtic, high, a root in Erse ; whence righim, 
I reach; richeadh, to stretch, reach, &c. 

3f "^ — as, a verbal root, whence the verb substantive, 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 83 

asmi, asi, ASTi, sum, es, est; syam, sim, or 
siem. 
Pers. est, he is ; hesten, to be. 
Greek, e/^/, (ol. eo-fxt,) eavi, cot*. 
Latin, esum, es, est. 
Teut. ist, is, &c. 
Celtic, ys (passive form) and ydis. 
oes, he is, Welsh. 
Erse, is, as is me, is tu, i se, I am, thou art, 
he is. 

N.B. This root is defective in all the above languages, and a 
great part of the forms of the verb substantive are supplied from 
the following. 

*T — bhfi, a verbal root, whence the verb BHAVAMI, 
<V J . . . 

I am ; pret. babhuva, fui ; babhuvima, fui- 

mus. 

Pers. budex, to be; bud, he was; existence, 

being. 

BU, be thou. 

Latin, fuo, fui, fuvimus. 

Teut. beon, to be, A. Sax. bin, bist, be, &c. 

Sclav, buit', to be, Russ. 

Greek, (/>{&, <f>vfjii, <fivvat. 

Celtic, bum, buost, bu, Welsh ; fui, fuisti, 

fuit. 

bydh, erit ; bod, esse. 

Erse, bu mi, I was ; bhith, to be. 

N.B. Compare Byd, the world, from the same root, with Bud 
in Persian, and Bhuh, the world, in Sanskrit. 

3{«T — an, a verbal root, whence the verb anyatai, 

respirat, vivit, and a?iimi, respiro. The first 

person of anyatai was perhaps, as the analogy 

of the other persons and of the active voice 

G 2 



84 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

would suggest, originally anyamai, instead 

of anijai : whence 
Latin, animus, anima, animatus. 
Greek, ave^og. 
Celtic, anaim, (Erse,) soul, spirit, 

rT^T — tan, a verbal root, whence the verb tanoti, he 
extends, stretches. 
Greek, TeiW, ravvcc, Tcivv{j.ou. 
Latin, tendo. 

Celtic, taen, spreading, extension, 
taenu, to spread, extend. 

<^T — da, a verbal root ; whence the verb dadami, 
I give. 
Pers. daden, to give. 
Greek, Sftafju, &o'». 
Latin, do. 

Celtic, daigh, a root in Erse; whence daighim, 
I give. 

3f^ — ad, a verbal root; whence the verb admi, atsi, 
atti, edo, edis, edit. 
Greek, ?&». 
Latin, edo, esu, &c. 

Celtic, ysu, or esu, edere; ysawl, edax, 
Welsh. 
ith, a root in Erse ; whence ithim, I 
eat ; itheadh, eating. 

2T3T — yuj, a verbal root; whence are derived several 
verbs meaning to join, and other words, as 
follows : 

yugum, a couple ; yugah, a yoke. 
yojami, praet. yuyoja, (conjungere, 
conjugare). 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 85 

yunajmi, (yuniijmi) prat, yuyoja (jun- 
gere) and yoksyami. 
Pers. yoo, a yoke, also yiigh. 

yfighiden, to yoke. 
Greek, ^evyvvfxi, %vyo$, k. t. A. 
Latin, jungo, jngnm. 
Rnss. jgo, a yoke. 
Tent, joch, Germ, yoke, Eng. 
Celtic, 

1. Welsh, jau, a yoke ; jeuaw, to yoke. 

jeuad, a yoking : jeuaeth, a yoked 
state. 

N. B. The Welsh words are nearer to the Sanskrit 
and Persian than to the European languages. 

2. Erse, cuing, or kuing, a yoke. 

jeugaff, to yoke or couple. (Armoric. 
Lhuyd, p. 245.) 

<\W- — dansh, a verbal root ; whence the verbs da- 
shami and dakshyami, (mordeo,) to bite. 
Noun, danta, a tooth. 
Greek, &aoa>, n. o^ovra. 
Latin, dens, dentes. 
Celtic, 

Welsh, daint, n. aggr. the teeth, 
dant, pi. dannedh. 
deintiaw, verb, to bite. 
Corn, danta, to bite. 

The following verbs, or etymons of verbs, are 
common to the Celtic and some of the other Euro- 
pean languages. Where the resemblance is only 
with the Latin, it may be thought probable that the 
Britons derived them from the Romans ; but when 

G 3 



86 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



the coincidence is between the Celtic and Greek, or 


Sanskrit, or other remote branches, 


the fact will 


admit of no similar explanation. 




dagru and deigraw W. 


b(XKpV(t> 




and 


and 




deigryn, W. 


haKpVOV 


lachryma. 


darhunaw 


bapOdva 




deu and "l 






dyvod, W. to come Y 


bva> and bvvco 




donet, Armor. J 






dysgu, W. 


bthdo-Kfo 


disco et doceo 


dylu and ) 


8et and bovkos 




dylyaw, to be obliged, W. j 


bovkevco 




dyro'i, W. 


bwpia 




canu, W. sing ^ 




fganum, Sansk 


canam, Erse j 


cano -j 


[singing, song. 


iachau, to heal, from ) 
iach, sane, whole j 






idofxai 








r kus and kusya- 

* 


cusau, ^ 


Kvao), Gr. 


-j mi, Sansk. ara- 


cusanu, W. to kiss j 


kiissen, Germ. 


L plector 


elu, W. to go 


ikevdco 


elsynt, they came 


rjkvaav 




galw, W. to call 


Kakza 


call 


cleiniaw, W. to lie 


KktVZLV 
(Kkd(t), Kkd(T(0 

J^et Kkda-Ls 




cleisiaw, W. to bruise 




cudhiaw, W. to hide, ) 
kith and kitha, Cornish j 


K€vd(a 




curaw, to beat, knock 


Kpoxxa 




cyriaw, to limit, border 


KeCpca 




chwareu, to gambol, sport 


yaipito 




balaii, to spring out, and 


fiakkiaOai 




balaw, noun 


fiokrj, e/c/3oAr) 




dalw, to catch 


bekct), inesco 




eb, to say, as ) 
eb eve said he | 


€77(0, dico 




€(f}7] t said he 




elwi, to gain 


eA.eii' 





THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



87 



ambylu to blunt ) 

ambylus, blunt, adj. J 

degadu 

eichiaw, to sound, from \ 

aich, pi. eichiau j 

gwthiaw and wthiaw, i 

to thrust j 

Iholiaw, to babble 
lhipau, to droop 
maclu, to earn wages 
men, a place 
medw, the mind 
meru, to droop ~| 

merwinaw, to benumb, I 

or deaden J 

tormu, to assemble round 
ystyr and ystyriaw, to} 
consider, note, reflect i 
caru, to love 
cob, cobio, to strike 

menw, mind 

novio, W.) 
snav, E. j 
credu, W. ) 
credeim, E. j 
eliaw, W. 
dosparthu 



aixfiXvvv 


| inlaui . 


md 


nila- 


CLfJLj3\vS 

Se/caroco 


Inus, S. 


languid 


r/x^co, n. rj X os, 
pi. ?}x€a 






0)6 €0) 








AaAea> 








o\Aei7reti> 








^eAerdco 








fl€V€(0 
fJLTjbCti) 


medito 







ixapaiva) 

turma 
to-ropeo) 
car us 

KOTTTG) 

man and manu-1 

tai, S. to know, Vmens, Lat. 
understand J 

vi<a, no, Lat. 
credo 

ak€L(f)0) 

dispertior. 



SECTION V. 

Adjectives, Pronouns, and Particles. 

Parag. 1. adjectives. 
3f^j — aalah, a, m. (ample, vast,) 
all, alle, whole, Germ. 
oAof, Gr. holl, oil, Welsh ; idle, Erse. 

G 4 



88 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

3^3"! — uchchah, a. m. (high.) 

uch, higher, upper ; uchel, uchach. (W.) 
uchchata, pride. (Sanskrit.) uchediad, 

soaring. (Welsh.) 
vxpov, Greek. Compare v\pY}\o$ and uchel 

in Welsh, 
hoch, high. Germ. 

*K5J — and H^rJ, maha and mahat, great. 
Greek, fxeya. Latin, magnus, major. 
Welsh, mawr. Erse, mor. 
Germ, mehr, more, &c. 

2J^"*T — yuvan. 

yuvan, Pers. 

jau, jeuant, jeuanc, Welsh. 

juvenes, juvencus, Latin. 

jung, young, Germ, yanuii, Russian. 

>sf]«1 I — jinah, an old man. 

sean, Erse ; hen, Welsh ; senex, Lat. 

1^ — nava, (Am. Cosh.) or «1<3 : navah. 
Greek, veog ; Latin, novus, 
Germ, neu, new ; Russian, novaii. 
Celtic, newydh, Welsh ; nuadh, Erse. 

The following are chiefly adjectives common to the 
Celtic and the Greek languages. 

alius 

claudus 



alh, (W.) 


eile, (E.) 


aWos 


coch 




KOKKLVOS 


cloff 




\(»>kbs 


medhws 


misgeach 


ixidvcos 


melus, sweet 


milis 


juetA.to-o-0) 


melyn, yellow 




ixrikivos 


tlawd 




rd\as 


caled 




XaA.€7ros 


car 


chara 


Xa/)tety 



carus 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



89 



trist 


tuirseach 


Tpvaaos 


tristis 


bvr 


gear 


KVpTOS 


brevis 


either 




kripoi 


caeteri 


ambylus 




ap,(BX.vs 




dilys 




bTJkos 

j 0€pfJ.bs 




twyni 




^ difiepos 




iachaus 




Irj'Cos 





Parag. 2. pronouns. 

The personal pronouns must be given in full 
when we proceed to the inflections of verbs, which 
are conjugated by means of them. It is only requi- 
site at present to anticipate the remark, of the truth 
of which the reader will be afterwards convinced, 
that the personal pronouns in the Celtic dialects 
consist of the very same elements, and these but 
slightly modified, which pervade all, or nearly all, 
the other languages referred to the Indo-European 
class. 

The possessive pronouns are in the Celtic formed, 
as in other languages, by a modification in the end- 
ing of the corresponding personal pronouns. 

Thus in Welsh. 

Personal pronouns. Possessives. 

1 Sing. mi, I, becomes mau 

2 — ti, thou, tau 

3 — masc. ev, in Erse se ei 

fem. hi, in Erse si ei 



1 Plur. 


ni, we 


2 — 


chwi, 


3 — 


hwy or 
hwynt 



ein 
eich 

eu 



The interrogative pronouns serve to exemplify 



90 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



the remarks made on the interchange of consonants 
in chapter 1. section 2. 

Interrogative Pronoun. 

In Greek, tls tL 

N. B. The existence of the interrogative particles nws, not, 
&c. renders it probable that there was an older Greek interro- 
gative pronoun corresponding, as nis, ni 



In Latin, 


quis quae 


quid 




qui 






In Erse, 


kia 




kidh 
kad 


In Sanskrit, 


kah 


ka 


kim 


In Welsh, 


pwy 


pa. 


Parag. 


3. 


PARTICLES. 


ni — na (Welsh) 




V7] 


na Sansk. 


yna 




tva 




wng, yng, near 




kyyvs 




agaws, or agos, prep. 




eyyvs 




cyd, cyda, pron. ciida 




Kara 




am, round 




afjLfpl 


um in German. 


heb, without 




airo 


ab, abs 


oc, out of 






ex 


trwy 






through, durch 


yn 








neu, particle of affirmation 


vat 




cyn, with, cum, con, Lat. 


avv, Gr. 


^rjr, sum, Sansk 


either 




arep 




di (insep. part.) di, dis, 


Lat. 


b\ 




dyre, veni 




btvpo 




evo 




a/Jia 




etto 




hi 


yet 


mo, negative) 


J 


\ixa 




after ni ) 




\0V fJLCL 




blaen 




7Tkr]V 





THE CELTIC NATIONS. 91 



CHAPTER IV. 

Proofs of a common origin derived from the grammatical struc- 
ture of the Celtic and other Indo-European languages. 

Section i. Review of the preceding facts and inferences. 
Introductory remarks on the personal inflections of verbs. 

1 HE instances which have been pointed out in the 
last chapter, to which I believe that it would be 
easy to make great additions, are sufficient to prove 
that there is an extensive affinity in the component 
vocabularies of the Celtic dialects and those of the 
other languages with which they have been com- 
pared. The examples of analogy already adduced 
are by far too numerous and too regular, or in ac- 
cordance with certain general observations, to be the 
result of mere chance or accidental coincidence. It 
must likewise be remarked that they are found in 
that class of words which are not commonly derived 
from one language into another. I allude particu- 
larly to such terms as denote the most familiar ob- 
jects and relations, for which no tribe of people is 
without expressive terms. When such relations as 
those of father, mother, brother, and sister are ex- 
pressed by really cognate words, an affinity between 
the several languages in which these analogies are 
found is strongly indicated. The same remark may 
be made in respect to the names of visible bodies 
and the elements of nature, such as sun, moon, air, 
sky, water, earth. Lastly, the inference is confirmed 
by finding many of the verbal roots of most frequent 
occurrence, as the verb substantive, and those which 
express generation, birth, living, dying, knowing, 



92 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

seeing, hearing, and the like, to be common to all 
these languages. 

It may be remarked, that in the Celtic language, 
as well as in the Persian, and in some German dia- 
lects, the Sanskrit and Greek words are represented 
by terms in a shortened and broken form, which 
have lost the regularity and beauty of their termi- 
nations. Yet there are several instances in which 
the Celtic words resemble more nearly their Sanskrit 
analogues than those belonging to other European 
languages, as the terms tad and brawd for tatah and 
bhrata, meaning father and brother. In many ex- 
amples the Sclavonic dialects and the Persian lan- 
guage display the transition from the form of words 
peculiar to the Sanskrit to that of the northern Eu- 
ropean idioms. The root shru or sru, meaning 
to hear, becomes in Russian slu ; but in Greek 
and in Celtic kXv and clyw, or clu. Ashwah, a 
horse, becomes asb in Persian, and in Erse each. 
Shukarah, a hog, is in Persian khuk, and in Welsh 
hwch. In most cases we discover something to con- 
firm the laws of deviation laid down in the preced- 
ing chapters, according to which it appears that 
words derived by the western from the eastern 
languages are changed in a peculiar way. The most 
general of these alterations is the substituting of 
guttural for sibilant letters, which by the Celtic dia- 
lects is made almost uniformly, and very frequently 
by the Greek and the Teutonic. 

There is a still more striking resemblance in the 
grammatical forms of these languages, which I shall 
now endeavour to point out. 

Professor Murray has attempted to illustrate the 
grammatical structure of the European languages 



THE CELTIC DIALECTS. 98 

from a quarter to which few persons would have 
been inclined to look with any hope of success for 
the means of its elucidation, I mean the Teuto- 
nic idioms, and even some of the modern dialects 
of the German language. It would really appear 
that in these idioms some words, affording traces of 
ancient forms and derivations, have still survived, 
which can no longer be recognised in the classical 
languages of India, of Greece, and of Italy. In the 
following pages it will more evidently appear, if I 
am not mistaken, that from the Celtic dialects a part 
of the grammatical inflections, and that a very im- 
portant part, common to the Sanskrit, the iEolic 
Greek, the Latin, and the Teutonic languages, is 
capable of an elucidation which i$? has never 
yet received. This can only be accounted for by 
the remark that the Celtic people have been more 
tenacious of the peculiarities of their language, as 
they have been in many respects of their customs 
and manners, than the other nations of Europe. 

The mode of conjugating verbs appears to be es- 
sentially the same in all these languages. It consists 
partly in certain variations indicating time and 
mood, and partly in the addition of particular end- 
ings, by which the differences of number and per- 
son are denoted. The former class of variations 
will be considered in the sequel. At present I shall 
investigate the nature and origin of the personal 
terminations, or of those increments or suffixes which 
the verbal roots receive for the purpose of distin- 
guishing the person and number. It will appear 
that these are all pronominal suffixes, or abbreviated 
or otherwise modified pronouns. This has been 
conjectured and shewn to be probable by many phi- 



94 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

lological writers, but the proof has always been de- 
fective in several particulars, because this subject 
has not been surveyed in a sufficiently comprehen- 
sive manner, and with attention to all the evidence 
which can be brought to bear upon it, and especially 
to that portion which is derivable from a compari- 
son of the Celtic dialects. 

In proceeding to this investigation, I shall in the 
first place shew by examples what are the charac- 
teristic endings of the different persons of the verb 
in several languages. 



SECTION II. 

Personal endings of the Sanskrit verbs. 
One system of personal terminations belongs to 
all Sanskrit verbs, and the differences of conjugation 
which are distinguished by grammarians consist in 
the changes which the verbal roots undergo. The 
following is an example displaying the terminations 
of the present tense as they are subjoined to the 
verbal root tud, to strike, in Latin tundo. 





1. Person. 


2. Person. 


3. Person. 


Singular, 


Tudami 


Tudasi 


Tudati 


Dual, 


Tudavas 


Tudat'has 


Tudatas 


Plural, 


Tudamas 


Tudafha 


Tudanti. 



This verb belongs to those classes of roots which 
insert a vowel a between the theme and the per- 
sonal endings. Others subjoin these endings imme- 
diately. The personal endings alone are as follows: 
1. Person. 2. Person, 3. Person. 



bing. 


-mi 


-si 


-ti 


Dual, 


-vas 


-t'has 


-tas 


Plur. 


-mas 


-fha 


-anti. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



95 



The same terminations belong to the future tenses 
as to the present; but those tenses which have the 
augment prefixed to the verb have the personal end- 
ings, as in Greek, in a more contracted form. The 
following is the first preterite of the verb tudami, 
corresponding closely to the Greek imperfect a . 

Praeteritum augmentatum 1. 

1. Person. 2. Person. 3. Person. 

Sing. Atudam Atudas Atudat 

Dual, Atudava Atudatam Atudatam 

Plur. Atudama Atudata Atudan. 

The abbreviated personal endings in Sanskrit 
verbs are as follows : 



Sing. 


-am 


-s 


-t 


Dual, 


-va 


-tarn 


-tam 


Plur. 


-ma 


-ta 


-an b 



There is another form of the indicative tenses in 
the parasmaipadum, or active voice, which it may be 
right here to exhibit. It is that of the reduplicated 
preterite, formed by rules nearly the same as those 
of the preterperfect in Greek verbs. The prseteritum 
reduplicatum of the verb tud or tudami is as fol- 
lows : 





1. Person. 


2. Person. 


3. Person. 


Sing. 


Tut6da c 


Tutodit'ha 


Tutoda 


Dual, 


Tutudiva 


Tutudafhus 


Tutudatus 


Plur. 


Tutudima 


Tutuda 


Tutudus. 



N. B. It may be observed that the vowel of the root u is 
changed into o in this instance by the form termed guna, of the 

a I represent the augment 3f by an a in following sir W. 
Jones's orthography ; but it might perhaps as correctly be re- 
presented by the Greek e. 

b Bopp, Gram. Crit. Sansk. p. 144. c In Latin tutudi. 



96 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

influence of which we trace the result in the Greek reduplicate 
preterite of the old form, commonly termed the prcterperfect of 
the middle voice. We shall observe likewise the influence of 
guna to be very extensive in the inflections of verbs in the dif- 
ferent European languages. 



SECTION III. 

Terminations characteristic of the persons of the Greek verb. 

Of the two principal forms of inflection by which 
Greek verbs are conjugated, one, viz. that of verbs 
in [Mi, corresponds nearly with the Sanskrit. There 
are strong reasons for believing this to be an ancient 
and perhaps the original method of conjugating 
verbs used in the Greek language a , independently 
of the circumstance that it so nearly resembles the 
forms of the Sanskrit. This conjugation comprises 
the verb substantive and a great many old and very 
anomalous and defective verbs, and those of very 
common and familiar occurrence b . The conjugations 
of verbs in « are so much more regular, that they 
bear the appearance of a designed and systematic 
scheme introduced for the sake of simplifying the 
inflections of the language. The Doric form of the 
verbs in //.< will probably serve to exemplify the per- 
sonal endings as they existed in the earliest state of 
the Greek language of which we can obtain any 
knowledge. The following is the Doric form of the 
verb laTYj^i in the present tense : 



a Matthiae indeed seems inclined to believe that there was a 
still older form of Greek verbs than those now extant, and that 
the termination was in &>. 

b As (pTjfii, ei/xi, irjfii, ^[xai, &C. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



97 



Person. 


8. Person 


tOTCl? 


toTari 


lararov 


tararov 


la-rare 


icrravrt. 



1. Person. 

Sing. tora/ut 

Dual, 

Plur. torajuter 

The irregular and defective verbs often display 
the primitive verbal forms of a language better than 
those which are regular, and of the former the verb 
substantive, which is anomalous in many languages, 
may be considered as the most ancient. The follow- 
ing is the present tense of the verb substantive in its 
oldest forms. 







Singular. Old form. 


1. 


etjott, 


Doric form e/x/xt, originally (?) eo-fu 


2. 


5> 

ets; 


in Homer, Pindar, Theocritus, ecro-i 


3. 


kcrri 


hrrl 


1. 
2. 




Dual. 


icTov 


iarov 


3 


£(TTOV 


ecrrbi' 
Plural. 


1. 


eo-juer, 


Doric dfA€$, originally (?) eoyxc? 


2, 


core 


eOT6 


3. 


eurt 


Doric €vrl 



It seems from this statement, that the following 
are the personal endings of the verb substantive in 
the present tense, subjoined immediately to the ver- 
bal root. 

Dual. Plural. 



Singular. 



1. 


-fXL 


2. 


-(TL 


3. 


-TL 



-re 



These will be seen on comparison to be nearly 
identical with the endings of Sanskrit verbs. A like 
analogy may be traced by comparing the abbreviated 



H 



98 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

form of the augmented preterite with the Greek pre- 
terimperfect and the preter reduplicate with the Greek 
preterperfect ; but as it is not my principal aim to 
trace the analogies of the Sanskrit and Greek lan- 
guages, I shall say nothing further on this subject. 



SECTION IV. 

Personal endings in Latin verbs. 

It is probable that the first person of the present 
tense in the indicative mood of Latin verbs termi- 
nated originally in m instead of o. This results 
from a comparison of the endings of the other per- 
sons in the various tenses of the indicative mood, 
and from the analogy afforded by the first person 
in the subjunctive mood. The supposition is con- 
firmed by the actual existence of old and anomalous 
forms, sum or esum, and inquam, where the ter- 
mination in m is still extant. 

The personal endings in Latin verbs, exclusive of 
the imperative mood, may be comprised in the fol- 
lowing forms. 

Singular. 



1. 


-am 


-em 


-im 


% 


-as 


-es 


-is 


s. 


-at 


-et 
Plural. 


-it. 


1. 


-amus 


-emus 


-imus 


2. 


-atis 


-etis 


-itis 


3. 


-ant 


-ent 


-unt, int 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 99 

SECTION V. 

Terminations which distinguish the persons of verbs in the Teu- 
tonic dialects. 

A new and very important light has been thrown 
on the structure and history of the Teutonic lan- 
guages by the researches of Professor Jacob Grimm. 
I shall endeavour to abstract in a short compass 
some of the results of his inquiries which relate to 
the inflections of verbs in the oldest of these lan- 
guages, as being closely connected with the subject 
now under consideration. 

The verbs are divided in all the Teutonic dialects 
into two classes, chiefly distinguished from each 
other by the manner in which they form the past 
tense and participle. These different modes of in- 
flection are termed by Dr. Grimm respectively the 
strong and weak conjugations. The former is sup- 
posed by that writer to be more ancient than the 
other, and to be in fact the genuine and primitive 
method by which the German nations distinguished 
the times and modes of action and of passion in the 
use of verbs. In this first method a great propor- 
tion of the original and peculiar roots of the Teu- 
tonic dialects were conjugated; but its use has given 
way in a great degree to a different scheme of in- 
flection, which of late has become prevalent, as being 
more in harmony with the genius of modern lan- 
guage. The latter is supposed to be more recent in 
its origin, and it comprises, besides many primitive 
German roots, all foreign words which have been 
adopted into the vocabulary of the Teutonic nations. 
The English reader will have an idea of the strongly 
and weakly inflected conjugations by observing that 
all those verbs belong to the former which make 

H 2 

itofC. 



100 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

the past tense and participle by changing the vowel 
of the monosyllabic root, as speak, spake, spoken ; 
while the inflection of praise, praised, praising, ex- 
emplifies the weak conjugation. In the Moeso-Gothic, 
which preserves the oldest forms of the Teutonic 
languages, there is, in addition to the change of 
vowel which characterises the past tense, a redupli- 
cation of a part of the root a . There are twelve 
forms belonging to the strongly inflected verbs, and 
three or four of the other class. As the character- 
istic parts of the verbs of each conjugation Dr. 
Grimm has given the indicative mood, present tense, 
first person singular, the first person singular and 
plural of the past tense, and the participle and infi- 
tive mood. 

As the subject of the present chapter is the cha- 
racteristic endings of persons and numbers, I should 
not have touched upon any thing which relates to 
the formation of tenses and moods, until I come to 
the proper place for that inquiry, had it not been 
for the circumstance that the personal endings them- 
selves are different in the several modes of conjuga- 
tion. As I wish to include the endings belonging 
to both systems, I found it necessary to explain, in 
the first place, the principle by which they are dis- 
tinguished from each other. I shall now extract a 
table of the terminations belonging to each form as 
laid down by Dr. Grimm, beginning with the Moeso- 
Gothic verbs. 

1. Strongly inflected conjugation of Moeso-Gothic 
verbs. 

The following verbs will afford a specimen of this 

a This was observed by Hickes. See his Moeso-Gothic Gram- 
mar. Thesaur. Ling. Sept. torn. i. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



101 



inflection, and display in an interesting manner some 
of the oldest forms belonging to our own language 
or that of our Teutonic ancestors. 

1. Slepa, I sleep; saizlep, I slept; saizlepum, we 

slept ; participle, slepans. 

2. Laia, I laugh; lailo, laughed; lailoum; laians. 

3. Svara, I swear ; svor, I swore ; svorum ; s va- 

rans. 

In this instance, and in the six last of the strongly 
inflected conjugations, the verb merely changes the 
radical vowel, and has no reduplication. 

Paradigm of the personal endings of verbs of the 
strongly inflected conjugations. 



1. 


Person. 2. 


Person. 


3. Person 


Indie. Pres. Sing. 


-a 


-is 


-ith 


Dual 
Plur. 


-6s 
-am 


-ats 
-ith 




-and 


Pret. Sing. 




-t 




Dual 


-u (?) 


-uts 





Plur. 


-urn 


-uth 


-un 


Subjunct. Pres. Sing. 


-au 


-ais 


-ai 


Dual 


-aiva (?) 


-aits 





Plur. 


-aima 


-aith 


-aina 


Pret. Sing. 


-jau 


-eis 


-ei 


Dual 


-eiva 


-eits 





Plur. 


-eima 


-eith 


-eina 


Imperative Sing. 












Dual 





-ats 





Plur. 


-am 


-ith 






Infinitive -an ; Particip. pres. -ands ; Particip. pret. -ans. 

N. B. The mark . . . indicates that no additional ending is 

subjoined to the verb, and the mark that the form for which 

it stands is wanting. 

H 3 



102 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



The following paradigm illustrates the weakly in- 
flected conjugation, of which the verb sokjan may 
serve as an example, sokjan or sokyan is suchen, to 
seek ; sokja, I seek ; sokida, I sought ; sokjands in 
the participle. 



T J' 


•x 


1. 


Person. 


2. Person. 


3. Person 


Indicat. 
mood 


I Pres. T. 


Sing. 
Dual 


(vowel) 
-6s 


-s 
-ts 


-th 






Plur. 


-m 


-th 


-nd 




Pret. T. 


Sing. 


-da 


-des 


-da 






Dual 





-deduts 




n 1 • 


"V 


Plur. 


-d&dum 


-deduth 


-dedun 


Subjunct 
mood 


' V Pres. T. 


Sing. 
Dual 


(vowel) 


-s 
-s 


(vowel) 






Plur. 


-ma 


-th 


-na 




Past T. 


Sing. 


-dedj£n 


-dedeis 


-dedi 


Imperat. 
mood 


} 


Dual 
Sing. 
Dual 





-dedeits 
(vowel) 
-ts 


-dedeina 


TnTinitivf 


i 


Plur. 


-m 


-th 





JL lllllll 11 \ v_ 

mood 




-n 








Participl 
ParticipJ 


e present, 

le past, 


-nds 
-ths 





Next to the Moeso-Gothic Dr. Grimm has ranked 
in the affiliation of Teutonic languages the Old 
High German, the characteristics of which approach 
most nearly to those of the Gothic forms. Under 
this denomination of Alt-hoch-deutsch or Old High 
German, it must be observed that the remains of 
several dialects are comprised, which were nearly al- 
lied, but yet probably differed from each other in pe- 
culiarities now scarcely to be ascertained. Among 
these were the idioms of the Franks, Bavarians, and 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 103 

Allemanni, and perhaps of other tribes between the 
seventh and eleventh centuries, of which specimens 
are preserved in the remains of Keros and Notker, 
and in the extant works of Ottfried. From these, 
and from some other relics of the period above men- 
tioned, this ancient form of the High German lan- 
guage has been made up and restored by the accu- 
rate researches of Dr. Grimm, 

Forms of the verb in the Old High German. 
Forms of the strongly inflected conjugation. 

"2? JP-T.Sing 1 ' 

Plur. 

Past T. Sing. 

^ , . . Plur. 

mood j _ n s 

\ Plur. 

Past T. Sing. 

Plur. 

Imperative Sing. 

Plur. 

Infinitive -an. Part. pres. -anter. Part, preter. -aner. 



As an example of this conjugation we may take 
the following: 

Slafu, I sleep. 
Sliaf, I slept. 
Slkfumes, we slept. 
Slafaner, having slept. 



H 4 



erson. 2. 


Person. 


3. Person 


-u 


-is 


-it 


-ames 


-at 


-ant 




-i 


... 


-uraes 


-ut 


-un 


-e 


-&s 


-e 


-ernes 


-et 


-en 


-i 


-is 


-i 


-imes 


-It 


-in 


— — — 


_3t 






104 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



Paradigm of the weakly inflected verb of the Old 
High German. 



1st Person. 2d Person. 3d Person. 

^mood' }Pres.T.Sing. -u(-m) 

Plur. -mes 

Pret. T. Sing. -ta 

Q , . . Plur. -tumes 

mood* j Pres * T " Sin ^- ( vowel ) 



Plur. -mes 
Pret. T. Sing. -ti 

Plur. -times 

Imperative Sing. 

Plur. 

Infinitive -n. Part. pres. -nter, -ter. 



-s 

-t 

-tos 

-tut 

-s 

-t 

-tis 

-tit 

(vowel) 

-t 



-t 

-nt 

-ta 

-tun 

(vowel) 

-n 

-ti 

-tin 



Dr. Grimm has added an analysis of the gramma- 
tical forms in the other dialects belonging to the 
Teutonic family of languages, viz. the Old Saxon, 
the Anglo-Saxon, the Old Frisian, the Old Norse or 
northern dialect of the Voluspa and the Edda, the 
Middle High German, the Middle Netherlandish, 
the modern High German, the modern Netherland 
dialect, the modern English, the Swedish, and the 
Danish. The comparison of these varying forms of 
one original speech is extremely interesting to the 
philologer, and indispensable to those who wish to 
be thoroughly and fundamentally acquainted with the 
relations of our own mother tongue, but it would 
be foreign to my present design to pursue this sub- 
ject further. I shall here add merely an outline of 
the personal endings of the Gothic and Old High 
German verbs in comparison with each other, con- 
fining myself to the present tense. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 105 

Personal endings of the Moeso-Gothic and Old 
High German verbs in the present tense. 
1st Pers. Sing, a vowel, (often -a or -u,) or -6111, or -em. 
2d Pers. Sing, -is, -es, -6s. 
3d Pers. Sing, -ith, -it, -et, -6t. 
1st Pers. Plur. -m, -am, -ames, -ernes, -omes, &c. 
2d Pers. Plur. -ith, -it, -et, -ot. 
3d Pers. Plur. -nd, -and, -ant, -ent, -ont. 

Examples of these terminations which so much resemble the 
classical languages, and which are now lost to so great a degree 
in the Germanic dialects, occur in the following verses of a 
translation of that magnificent hymn of the ancient church, the 
Te Deum, which I copy from Hickes's Thesaurus, 
i . Thih Cot lopemes, Te Deum laudamus, 

Thih Trutinan gehemes, Te Dominum confitemur, 

Thih euuigan Fater, Te eeternum Patrem, 

Eokiuuelih erda uuirdit. Omnis terra veneratur. 

2 . Thir alle engila, thir himila, Tibi omnes angeli, tibi cceli, 
Inti alio kiuualtido, Et universal potestates, 
Thir Cherubim inti Seraphim Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim 
Unbilibanlieheru stimmo fo- Incessabili voce proclamant, 

raharent, 

3. Uuiher, uuiher, uuiher, Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, 
Truhtin Cot herro, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. 
Folliu sint himila inti erda Pleni sunt cceli et terra 
Thera meginchrefti tiurda Maj estate glorise tuse. 

thinera. 



SECTION VI. 

Personal endings of verbs in the Sclavonian dialects and in the 
Persian language. 

As the Sclavonian dialects constitute one import- 
ant branch of the European languages, they must 
not be entirely passed over in a treatise, the object 
of which is to point out and illustrate the relations 
of these idioms to each other. I shall, however, 



106 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

confine myself to one dialect belonging to this divi- 
sion, and on this I shall touch but briefly. The 
following examples will afford my readers a speci- 
men of the inflection of verbs in the Russian lan- 
guage, so far as the personal endings are con- 
cerned ; and they will be sufficient to shew, that these 
terminations belong to the generally prevailing sys- 
tem which we have traced in other languages. 

The Russian verbs are complicated in other re- 
spects, but their personal terminations present very 
little variety. In several tenses these endings are 
entirely wanting, and the personal pronouns alone 
distinguish the modifications of meaning; but the 
present tense has a perfect inflection. The following 
is the present tense of the verb stoyu, I stand a . 
Singular. Plural. 

1. ya stoyu mi stoim 

2. ti stoish vi stoite 

3. on' stoit oni stoyat. 

The following paradigm of the terminations of 
Russian verbs in the two forms which differ most 
widely from each other is given by Professor Vater 
in his excellent Russian Grammar. 

First Form. Fifth Form. 

Singular. Singular. 

1. -yu 1. -u 

2. -esh % -ish 

3. -et 3. -it. 
Plural. Plural. 

1. -em 1. -im 

2. -ete 2. -ite 

3. -yut. 3. -yat b . 

a Elemens de la Langue Russe par M. Charpentier. Petersb. 
1768. p. 148. 

b Dr. Johann Severin Vater's Praktische Grammatik der Rus- 
sischen Sprache, p. 88. 






THE CELTIC NATIONS. 107 

The Persian verbs display the same general ana- 
logy ; their terminations are even more nearly allied 
to those of the Teutonic verbs than the Sclavonian. 
Of this the reader will judge from the present tense 
of the verb substantive, which is regarded as a model 
for the variations of the persons in all tenses. 
Sing. 1. -am 2. -iy 3. -est 

Plur. 1. -Im 2. -id 3. -end. 

The following is the preterite of the verb buden, 
and may serve as an example of past tenses in ge- 
neral. 

Sing. 1. -budem 2. -budi 3. -bud 

Plur. 1. -budim 2. -budid 3. -budend. 



SECTION VII. 

Terminations characterising the persons and numbers of verbs 
in the Celtic languages. 

I now proceed to the personal endings of verbs in 
the Celtic language ; and as they appear to have been 
preserved in a more complete state in the Welsh 
than in any other dialect of this language, I shall 
take the Welsh verbs at present as my principal 
subject. In the sequel, the formations peculiar to 
the Erse will be examined, and compared with those 
belonging to other idioms. 

It has been observed, that the Teutonic verbs have 
only one form for the future and the present tense. 
The same remark applies to the Welsh ; for the Welsh 
language, except in the instance of the verb substan- 
tive, which has two distinct forms, one for the pre- 
sent and the other for the future tense, has only one 
modification of the verb, which is used to represent 
both. In the German dialects the single form above 



108 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

referred to is properly a present tense ; but the Welsh 
grammarians consider that their language has only 
a future, and say that the future is put for the pre- 
sent. It is however used as such in cases where 
no license of expression or trope can have place, as 
in the Creed : " Credav yn Nuw Dad," Credo in 
Deum Patrem. 

The Welsh verbs present a considerable variety 
in their terminations, as the following examples will 
shew. 

First Form, Future Tense, of the verb caru, to love. 
Singular. Plural. 

1 carav carwn 

2 ceri, i. e. keri cerwch 

3 car carant 

It must be noticed that the third person of the 
future tense is the root of the verb. The endings 
of the other persons are pronominal suffixes, as we 
shall clearly perceive in the sequel. The termina- 
tion of the first person in av is equivalent to amk, 
or the v to a soft m. In the present tense of verbs 
in the Erse dialect the corresponding termination is 
always aim or im. 

Second Form, Preterperfect Tense a . 
Singular. Plural. 

1 cerais carasom 

2 ceraist carasoch 

3 carodh carasant 

a It may be worth while to add the same tense of the verb 
substantive, as it displays somewhat more strikingly the affinity 
of the Celtic to other European inflections. 

i bum fui buom fuimus. 

2 buost fuisti buoch fuistis. 

3 bu fuit buont fuerunt. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 109 

Third Form, Preterpluperfect Tense. 
Singular. Plural. 

1 carwn carem 

2 carit carech 

3 carai carent 

The preterpluperfect caraswn changes its endings 
exactly as the foregoing. 

There are some other varieties, an account of 
which will be given in a following chapter. It is 
only my object at present to deduce a general prin- 
ciple. 

The following are the terminations. I begin with 
the plural, as presenting more regularity. 
Plural Terminations. 
1st Form. 2d Form. 3d Form. 4th Form. 

1 -wn -om -em -ym 

2 -wch -och -ech -ych 

3 -ant -ant -ent -ynt 

The fourth column contains a modification used 
by the poets. 

The terminations proper to the singular number 
are as follows: 

1st Form. 2d Form. 3d Form. 

1 -av -ais -wn 

2 -i -aist -it 

3 no addition 
to the root. 

It will be observed at once that there is sufficient 
resemblance between these inflections and those of 
other Indo-European languages to connect them in- 
dubitably with that class. This is particularly ma- 
nifest in the plural endings. There are some appa- 
rent anomalies, but these will be explained in the 
sequel, and will be found illustrative of the general 
result to be deduced. 
b Note, dh, commonly written dd, is pronounced as th in other. 



1 \ -odhb _ ai 

i 



110 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



CHAPTER V. 

Of the personal pronouns in the Indo-European languages, and 
of the derivation of the personal terminations of verbs. 

Section I. Personal pronoun of the first person. 

.HAVING examined in the preceding chapter the 
systems of terminations which characterise the per- 
sons of verbs, I now proceed to compare with them 
the personal pronouns still extant in the same lan- 
guages, and to shew that the endings of verbs which 
distinguish the persons and numbers are supplied by 
abbreviated forms of those pronouns subjoined to 
the verbal roots. In what degrees the pronouns be- 
longing to each language have contributed to the 
formation of these endings or suffixes will appear in 
the course of the following investigation. 

Personal pronoun of the first person in the Sanskrit, Greek, 

Latin, Russian, Moeso-Gothic, and Old High German 

languages. 

Singular. 
Nominative. 
nS^Hv — aham; eyav, eycb, 'icaya, wvya; ego; ya, Russ.; 
ik, Goth, ih, O. H. Germ. 

Genitive. 
*{?{ — mama and 3T — mai ; peSev, epeo, pov ; mei ; 
menya, Russ.; meina, Goth.; min, O. H. Germ. 

Dative. 

H \^\ *£ — mahyam and H" — mai; efuv, e/ao/, fxoi; mihi ; 
mne, Russ.; mis, Goth.; mir, O. H. Germ. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. Ill 

Accusative. 
*n*^ — main and *TT — m &; e/xe, //i, e/x/v; me; menya, 
Russ.; mik, Goth.; mih, O. H.Germ. 
Ablative. 
E{7^ — mat ; car e/xot) ; a, me, &c. 

Instrumental. 
*\*\ | — maya; me, Lat.; mnoiu and mnoi, Russ. 

Locative. 
HK| — mayi ; in me. 

Propositi ve. 
nine, Russ. 

Dual. 
Nominative. 
s$\ m \\ — avam; a/x^e, vm 9 vu; vit, Goth.; wiz (?) 
O. H. Germ. 

Genitive. 

*\ \*\A l*V — avayos and *T — nou ; vtotv, vw ; ugkara, 
Goth.; unchar, O. H.Germ. 
Dative. 

3n^T^r^ — avabhyam, *T — nou; vmv, v£v; ugkis, 
Goth.; unch, O. H. Germ. 
Accusative. 
3fT^7^r — avam and «T — nou ; a^/xe, vai', vS> ; ugkis, 
Goth.; unch, O. H. Germ. 

Ablative and Instrumental. 
^ N I ^T^— avabhyam. 

^^ Locative. 

s*i!qeJTF_avayos. 

Plural. 

Nominative. 

^^1^ — vayam ; a/xe$, i. e. vames, wees, 07/xe/V ; nos ; 

mi, Russ.; veis, Goth.; wir, O. H. Germ. 



112 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

Genitive. 
3TT^TT^?T — asmakam ; apuv, yj^uv ; nas, Russ.; un- 
sara, Goth.; unsar, O. H. Germ.; our. 

Dative. 
3fT5T^5pT — asmabhyam, •Tff — nas; apiv, fan; no- 
bis; nam, Russ.; unsis, Goth.; uns, O. H. Germ. 

Accusative. 
3f^(7 ? [ — asman, «1*^ — nas ; a/x//.a$-, fakaq ; nos ; 
nas, Russ.; unsis, (uns,) Goth.; unsih, Old H. 
Germ. 

Ablative. 

s5H*| \<\ — asmat ; a<j> fawv ; a nobis. 

Instrumental. 

^(t*i|[ *TH — asmabhis ; nobis ; nami, Russ. 

Locative. 

3fWTW — asmasu ; in nobis. 

Prsepositive Case, 
nas, Russ. 

Note. An attentive examination will enable the reader to 
ascertain, that, notwithstanding the great variety of these 
pronouns and their inflections, a few common elements are 
the foundation of them all. A satisfactory analysis of the 
Sanskrit pronoun has been given us by Professor Bopp, who 
has dissected the elements which enter into its declension 
with his usual ingenuity and discernment. His object is 
the Sanskrit pronoun, but his remarks may tend to eluci- 
date the corresponding forms in all the cognate languages. 
He observes that the Sanskrit aham, ego, which is quite un- 
connected with its oblique cases, consists of two elements, 
viz. 3f^T ? ah and 3f51" ? am ; the latter is a mere termina- 
tion, occurring as such in other pronouns : ah is the root. 
Compare it with ih, ik, ek, ego, h being considered as a gut- 
tural consonant. The oblique cases in the Sanskrit pronoun 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 113 

are derived from two similar roots 5^ — ma and 3-f — mai, 
which, however, have no existence as distinct words in the 
Sanskrit language. We may observe that from a root al- 
lied to the last, the oblique eases in the European languages 
are formed. This root is not to be found as an independent 
word, or as a nominative case in any of those idioms of 
which the pronouns have been hitherto compared. We 
shall discover it in the Celtic. 

The plural nominative is c|" — vai, prefixed to the above- 
mentioned termination am. The plural oblique cases come 
from an etymon common to all these languages, but not ex- 
isting in any of them as a distinct word. From it we de- 
rive the Russian nas, and v&'i and nos in Greek and Latin. 
We shall find this etymon to be the Celtic nominative plural. 
Asman and a/x/xe (originally aoyxe, as also fyxj^e was w/utc ?) 
contain an epen thesis of sma. 

M. Bopp supposes the endings of the cases to have been 
formed by involved prepositions; as asmabhis, nobis, from 
the Sanskrit preposition abhi, added to the elements of the 
word. The same termination is to be traced in the Latin 
nobis, and perhaps in the Greek fjfuv, which may have been 
originally fjfutylv or ayniufriv. On this subject M. Bopp re- 
fers to a dissertation of his own on the origin of cases, in 
the Abhandlungen der Historisch-Philologischen Klasse der 
K.akad. der Wissenschaften, (viz. at Berlin,) ann. 1826. 



SECTION II. 

Pronoun of the second person. 

Singular. 

Nominative. 

^TT — tuarn or twam ; tv, <tv, rvyoc; tu; tii, Russ.; 

thu, M. Goth.; du, O. H. Germ. 

Genitive. 

rl^ — tava or n — tai ; Teo, t€v$, o-eo, &c. ; tui ; tebya, 

Russ.; theina, Goth.; din, O. H. Germ. 

i 



114 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

Dative. 

*P^*1 — tubhyam and n — tai ; t\v, Teh, rot; tibi ; 
tebe, Russ.; thus, Goth.; dir, O. H. Germ. 

Accusative. 



tTT*£ — tuam and f^\ | — twa ; tv, ere; te ; tebya, 
Russ.; thuk, Goth.; dih, O. H. Germ. 

Ablative. 

^r\ — tuat ; a te.' 

Instrumental. 

f^H I — twaya ; te ; toboyu, toboi, Russ. 

Locative. 
m U( — tuayi. 

Praepositive. 
tebe, Russ. 

Dual. 

Nominative. 
2J^"TET — yuvam; v^e, a<j>£i, o-<£a>; yut, (?) Goth.; yiz. 
iz, (?) O. H. Germ. 

Genitive. 
^qej |H — yuvayos, TT*T — vam ; igqvara, Goth. ; 
inchar, O. H. Germ. 

Dative. 
2J^TP"2J3T — yuvabhyam, ^ (H^ — vam ; Z^fxe k.t.X. 
igqvis, Goth.; inch, O. H. Germ. 

Accusative. 
Sanskrit and Greek the same as the nom.; Gothic 
and Old High German the same as the dative. 

Ablative and Instrumental. 
2jq |±3JET — yuvabhyam . 

Locative. 
^q^JM^ — yuvayos. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS 115 

Plural. 

Nominative. 

^^IH, — yiiyani ; ^ €€ ^» fy* € $j *•*". A.; vos ; vii, Russ.; 
yus, Goth.; ir, O. H. Germ. 

Genitive. 
^p^n^JT — ynshmakam and ^H — vas ; tyxeajv, S^»v ; 
vostrum, vestrnm ; vas, Russ.; i'zvara, Goth.; 
iwar, O. H. Germ. 

Dative. 

^ ^H^H, — ynshmabhyam, ^~H — vas ; l^h ; vobis ; 

vam, Russ.; i'zvis, Goth.; iu, O. H. Germ. 

Accusative. 
^H \*\ — yushman, ^T — vas ; vpeas, l[x<x$ ; vos ; 
vas, Russ.; izvis, Goth.; iwih, O. H. Germ. 

Ablative. 
S^JTr^ — yushmat ; a vobis. 

Instrumental. 
^^ IW[ — yushmabhis ; vobis ; vami, Russ. 

Locative. 
^H l*J — yushmasu. 

Praepositive. 
vas, Russ. 

Note. The pronouns of the second person are susceptible 
of an analysis similar to that of the preceding, as may be 
seen by the reader of Bopp's critical observations on these 
pronouns in his Sanskrit Grammar. The cases of the sin- 
gular number are formed from the elements R" — tu, (as no- 
minative twam or tu-am,) and ^~ — tua, or ^cf — tuai. The 
dual cases are formed from dJc| , yuva, and agree in ter- 
minations with those of the pronoun of the first person. 
The plural cases are formed from 7T — yu, and from c| ^, 
vas, or vos. 



11G EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

SECTION III. 

Pronouns of the third person. 
The pronouns of the third person are still more 
varied and numerous in their inflections than the 
preceding. The personal pronouns of the third 
person, which are properly so termed, and chiefly in 
use as such, appear to have little or no relation either 
to the corresponding personal pronoun in Sanskrit, 
or to the personal endings of verbs. But there are 
some other words in these languages, which, though 
chiefly used as demonstrative pronouns or definite 
articles, appear to have been originally personal 
pronouns. For example, the definite article in 
Greek was used, as Matthiae has observed, for olrog, 
and was in fact a pronoun. It bears also in its 
forms a near analogy to the Sanskrit personal pro- 
noun. The Gothic demonstrative pronoun or article 
sa, so, thata is closely allied to both of these, and 
all the three were apparently the same word very 
slightly modified. The Latin pronoun approaching 
most nearly to these is iste. I shall collate the 
forms of all of them, that the reader may perceive 
their affinities. It must be observed, that the chief 
reason for selecting these rather than any other pro- 
nouns of the third person is the circumstance, that 
the verbal endings of the third person which have 
been traced in the preceding chapter are perhaps 
formed by suffixes, or abbreviations of them, and 
are quite unconnected with those personal pronouns, 
which in the actual state of the respective languages 
are more regularly used as such. 

Matthiae has conjectured that the primitive form 
of what is called the definite article in Greek was 
ro$, ry, to : but the analogy of permutations indicates 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



117 



the aspirate to have taken place rather of a sibilant 
than of a dental, and it is probable that ao$, aa, to, 
was the form which preceded the present one. Yet 
the sigma is peculiar to the masculine and feminine 
nominative, and the real etymon of the pronoun 
must have been in Greek similar to the root which 
exists in Sanskrit and the other cognate languages. 
rfrT — tat, is the nominal root, as given by gramma- 
rians, but the real etymon, as Professor Bopp has 
observed, must have been rT — ta, and rT — ta, to, te, 
and tha seem to have been the roots in the Sanskrit, 
Greek, Latin, and Teutonic languages. Iste is pro- 
bably a compound word formed of is the personal 
pronoun and an old demonstrative, strikingly ana- 
logous to the Sanskrit personal pronoun. 







Singular. 






Nominative. 




Masculine. 


Feminine. 


Sanskrit - 


r^-sas, 

\ or 
I ST:— sab. 


[• *TT-sa 


Greek 


6 or crb 


tj or aa 


Gothic 


sa 


so 


0. H. G. 


der 


diu 


Latin 


is-te 


is-ta 




riT^T— tas 


Genitive. 


Sanskrit 


ya rlHIItf- 


Greek 


TO 10, TOV 


TCLS, TTJ$ 


Gothic 


this 


thizos 


0. H. G. 


des 


dera 


Latin 


istius 


istius 
I 3 



Neuter. 

r\r[— tat 

t6 

thata 
daz 
is-tud 



■tasyas r1^| — tasya 
roto, tov 
this 
des 
istius 



118 




EASTERN ORIGIN OF 










Dative. 






*^ 


>moi 


rT^f — tasyoi 


■*k 


Sanskrit 


rUH—tas 


r\ tH — tasmoi 


Greek 


ro) (rwt) 




rq, rr\, (rat) 


ro) (tgh) 


Gothic 


thamma 




thizai 


thamma 


O. H. G. 


demu 




deru 


demu 


Latin 


isti 
rT^T— tam 


[ 


istae (istai) 
Accusative. 


isti 


Sanskrit 


ri|^— tarn 


rfr^— tat 


Greek 


TOV 




rrjv, rav 


V 

TO 


Gothic 


thana 




tho 


thata 


O. H. G. 


den 




dia 


daz 


Latin 


istum 


• 


istam 
Ablative. 


istud 



Sanskrit r\**\ \t\ — tasmat rK<£| |^ — tasyas r\&\ \T\ — tasmat 

Instrumental. 

Sanskrit rvT — taina rT^TT — tava <i*1 — taina. 

Latin isto ista isto 



Locative. 
Sanskrit rnW^ — tasmin r1^i)|^ — tasyam rTf^T'T — tasmin 

Dual. 

Nominative and Accusative. 

Sanskrit nT — tou H — ta i H — tai 

Greek ro> ra ro> 



Genitive and Dative in Greek. 
Instrumental, Dative, and Accusative in Sanskrit. 

Sanskrit rTT^TR^— tabhyam 

Greek rolv tqxv roiv 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



119 







Plural. 








Nominative. 




Sanskrit 


H— tai 


r1|^— tas 


rlM—tani 


Greek 


oi (crot) 


at (cat) 


TO. 


Gothic 


tMi 


thos 


tho 


0. H. G 


die 


dio 


diu 


Latin 


isti 


istse 


ista 






Genitive. 
^7^7*^— tasam 


■s 


Sanskrit 


rj b| j *4 — taisham 


r| ^ | *\ — taisham 


Greek 


TU>V 


T<S V 


t£>v 


Gothic 


thize 


thizo 


thize 


0. H. G. 


dero 


dero 


dero 


Latin 


istorum (istosum) 


istarum (istasum) 


istorum (istosum) 




^"^Jlf — taibhyus 


Dative. 




Sanskrit 


rTP^IlT-- tabn y us H^^— taibhyu 


Greek 


rot? 


rats 


rots 


Gothic 


thaim 


thaim 


thaim 


0. H. G. 


dem 


dem 


dem 


Latin 


istis (istobus) 


istis (istabus) 
Accusative. 


istis (istobus) 


Sanskrit 


r\\*\ — tan 


rTT^— tas 


rt M — tani 


Greek 


TOVS 


TCLS 


TCL 


Gothic 


thans 


thos 


tho 


0. H. G. 


die 


dio 


diu 


Latin 


istos 


istas 


ista 




Ablative in 


Sanskrit same as Dative. 






Instrumental. 




Sanskrit 


r\ f^— tois 


rnfH^T— tabhis 


OF— tois 


Greek 


rots 


rats 


rots 


Latin 


istis 


istis (istabus) 
Locative. 


istis 


Sanskrit 


rl N — taishu 


r| |H — tasu 


n^T — taishu. 



120 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

SECTION IV. 

General observations on the preceding facts. 

It will be apparent on a survey of the foregoing 
table, that the pronouns of the third person bear as 
near a relation to each other, in the several lan- 
guages compared, as do those of the first and se- 
cond. These relations, as well as the analogies dis- 
coverable in the former tables, are chiefly evident in 
the oblique cases, though by comparing the nomina- 
tives merely they might be recognised. 

But in the multiplicity of terminations which the 
declension of these pronouns displays, it will be in 
vain to look for the pronominal suffixes of the sys- 
tem of verbs. The variety of endings precludes the 
hope of any certain discoveries in this respect. And 
if we confine our examination to the nominative 
cases of the pronouns, which alone can be taken into 
the account with strict propriety, we find only one 
which contains exactly the ending connected with 
the personal verb. In all the languages compared 
in the preceding tables, the termination of the first 
person plural is in amus, ames, ame, or am. This 
in the older forms of the Greek language is the pro- 
noun of the corresponding person. If in other in- 
stances such a correspondence were discoverable, the 
problem which refers to the actual origin of the verbal 
inflections would be solved. But this unfortunately 
is not the case; and hence many philological writers 
and grammarians still deem it uncertain on what 
principle these varieties in the endings of the verb 
were really formed ; and those who consider them 
as dependent upon pronominal suffixes have been 
rather inclined to lay down this position as a 
probable one, than as established by decisive proofs. 



THE CELTIC NATION-. 121 

In this state of the question it is fortunate that 
there is one idiom in which the personal pronouns, 
as well as the verbal suffixes, have been preserved in 
a form apparently much less altered from their ori- 
ginal one, than in any of the more celebrated and 
classical dialects, in which philologists have in ge- 
neral sought the means of elucidating the structure 
of language. I allude to the Celtic dialects, and 
particularly to that still spoken by the Welsh peo- 
ple, but which is found in a much more perfect 
state in the productions of British writers coeval 
with, or even of greater antiquity than the oldest 
compositions of the Anglo-Saxons. The preserva- 
tion of the pronouns in the Welsh language during 
so long a period of time has perhaps resulted from 
the circumstance, that in that idiom they are un- 
declinable words, whereas in most of the European 
dialects they are susceptible, as we have seen, of co- 
pious inflection and variety of endings. The ter- 
minations of words in general are but little capable 
of change in the Celtic idioms, as indeed are those 
idioms themselves, of which the people appear ever 
to have been remarkably tenacious. It would per- 
haps not be going too far to say, that no language 
in Europe has undergone so little change in an 
equal space of time as the Welsh sustained during 
the centuries which intervened between Aneurin 
and Lhywarch and the period when the sacred 
scriptures were translated into it. To whatever cir- 
cumstances the fact is to be attributed, it seems to 
be certain, as I hope to make it sufficiently apparent, 
that the Celtic idioms preserve, in a more perfect 
state than any other languages of Europe or Asia, 



122 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

the original pronouns of which abbreviated forms 
enter as suffixes into the inflections of verbs through 
the numbers and persons. 

That the resources afforded by the Celtic dialects 
have not yet been applied to the elucidation of 
grammatical forms in the European languages in 
general, has arisen, as I apprehend, from the fact 
that inquiries of this description have been pursued 
chiefly by German scholars, who, owing to local cir- 
cumstances, have been little acquainted with these 
provincial idioms of the British isles. It will be my 
endeavour, in the course of the following investiga- 
tion, to supply the deficiency ; but before I enter 
upon this part of my task, I shall beg leave to set 
before my readers some passages from Professor 
Grimm's Analysis of the Teutonic Languages, in 
order to shew how far the inquiry respecting the 
origin of verbal inflections has already advanced, 
and what remains to be done, or to be attempted. 

The characteristic terminations of person and 
number in the Teutonic verbs, which, as we have 
seen, have such endings closely analogous to those 
of other European languages, are thus deduced by 
Professor Grimm. 

The ending of the first person singular seems, as 
he observes, to have been originally M. This, how- 
ever, is in many instances defective, and has been 
more lately softened into N. The second person 
singular is characterized by a final s ; the third 
person by th. 

The first person plural added originally to the 
final M of the singular number an s, (with a vowel 
interposed,) which however was gradually dropped. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 123 

The second person plural had TH, like the third 
person singular, adding perhaps an s, (with an in- 
terposed vowel,) which was afterwards rejected. 

Lastly, the third person plural had ND, of which 
the D again is in many instances defective. 

The dual seems originally to have had vs in the 
first person, and ts in the second, and in the third 
to have been wanting. 

The imperative mood in the strongly inflected 
conjugation entirely rejects any personal inflection, 
and it makes the second person dual and plural, as 
well as the first person plural, perhaps also the first 
person dual, like the indicative, while it always 
wants the first and third person singular. The cha- 
racteristic of the infinitive mood is the consonant N, 
which however is wanting in several dialects. It 
may be remarked, that the indicative mood has the 
personal characteristics in a more complete state 
than the conjunctive mood, and the present tense 
than the preterite tense. Moreover, the first and 
third persons of the preterite invariably want the 
characteristic consonant, and the D subjoined to the 
N of the third person plural in the present tense is 
wanting in the preterite, the modification already 
induced in the verb itself, in the formation of the 
preterite tense, being sufficient for distinguishing the 
sense in conversation a . 

In another part of his work the same writer 
makes the following observations, with a view to 
elucidate, as far as the languages within his scope 
would afford opportunity, the origin of these in- 
flections. 

He says, " The personal characteristics in the 
a Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik. th. i. p. 835 — 6. 



124 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

conjugation of verbs allow of a satisfactory compa- 
rison with the personal pronouns, the relations of 
which are blended in the idea of the verb. Some- 
thing is really explained by this comparison. Some 
parts of the personal pronoun destitute of gender 
offer themselves in a striking manner : what is less 
obvious we must endeavour to restore from the cor- 
rupt state partly of the pronoun, and partly of the 
verbal inflection, the variations of which have been 
for an indefinite time increasing each in its own 
way, without regard to the original connection be- 
tween them. Sometimes the forms of the pronoun b 
may be conjectured from the verb, and sometimes 
those of the verb from the pronoun ; the third per- 
son is for obvious reasons the most obscure, of which 
the pronoun destitute of gender has undergone the 
greatest change, has become defective in some cases, 
and in some instances has been entirely lost, while 
the pronoun of the third person having gender 
shews no relation to the verbal inflection. The cha- 
racteristic terminations of the third person, singular 
and plural, viz. D and nd, appear to me quite in- 
explicable by means of the German pronouns. The 
M of the first person singular is more tractable. 
From pentames in the first person plural I infer a 
more ancient meis, instead of the Old High Ger- 
man veis, and trace from meis, mis, wis, win. 
The termination of the second person in th is 
clearly related to the pronoun thu, and affords 
room for conjecturing an older, thjus, (thyiis,) in- 
stead of jus, for the second person plural. Lastly, 
the characteristic endings of the dual v and ts have 

b The difficult anomalies of which are observed in page 813 
of Grimm's Grammatik. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 185 

a relation to the dual pronominal forms vit and jut, 
(originally juts). The examination of foreign lan- 
guages anciently connected will help to support 
these conjectures . 

I shall examine whether this subject will admit 
of further elucidation from the extant forms of the 
Celtic verbs and pronouns. 

SECTION V. 

Of the Celtic pronouns. 

The Celtic dialects, having no declension of the 
pronouns, properly so termed, supplies the deficiency 
in a manner similar to that adopted in the Hebrew 
and other cognate languages. They have two series 
of personal pronouns, the distinct or entire pro- 
nouns, which are chiefly used as nominative cases, 
or as accusatives after verbs, and a class of abbre- 
viated pronouns used in regimen particularly after 
prepositions, and answering the purpose of the ob- 
lique cases of pronouns in other languages. I shall 
first give a table of the entire pronouns, as they exist 
in both of the principal branches of the Celtic lan- 
guage. 

Paragraph 1. 
Entire personal pronoun in the Erse. 

The entire personal pronouns in the Erse are as 
follows : 

First Person. 

Me, I or me. 

Sinn, we ; inn, secondary form, the initial s being 
changed for H and at length omitted b . 

c Grimm, p. 1052. 

b In chap. i. sect. 1. the reader will find an explanation of 
what is meant by the secondary forms of initial consonants. 



126 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

Second Person. 
Tu, thou ; thu, i. e. t'hu, secondary form 
Sibh, you; ibh, secondary form. 

Third Person. 
Singular Masculine. 
Se, he ; e, secondary form. 

Singular Feminine. 
Si, she; i, secondary form. 

Plural Common. 
Siad, they ; iad, secondary form. 

Paragraph 2. 
Entire pronouns personal in Welsh. 
First Person. . 
Mi, I ; reduplicate form, myvi, eywye ; secondary 
form of initial, vi and i. 

Ni, we ; reduplicate form, nyni. 

Second Person. 
Ti, thou ; reduplicate form, tydi ; secondary form 
of initial, di and thi. 

Chwi, you ; reduplicate form, chwychi. 

Third Person, Masculine Singular. 
Ev, eve, evo, ve, vo, e, o. 
All these various words occur for he and him. 

Note. The Welsh translators of the holy Scriptures con- 
sidered eve as a nominative case preceding the verb, and 
they used ev for the accusative; but in this they are said by 
the most learned of the Welsh grammarians to be in oppo- 
sition as well to the common usage of the Welsh language 
as to the authority of the old poets b . 

b Antiquse Linguae Britannicse Rudimenta, auctore Joh. Da- 
vies. Editio altera, Oxonii, 1809. p. 84. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 127 

With more probability, eve and evo have been considered 
by grammarians as reduplicate forms, the simple pronoun 
being ev 9 or rather e. Analogy leads us to suppose that the 
original state of this pronoun was in Welsh as it is in Erse, 
se, and, the initial being softened, he, which was afterwards 
written c. 

Feminine Singular. 

Hi, she ; reduplicated, hihi. 

Note. The same rule of analogy above referred to proves 
that hi was derived from a primitive form si, whence hi, as 
in Erse. 

Plural Common. 

Hwy and hwynt ; reduplicate form, hwynt hwy. 

Note. There is reason to suspect that hwy and hwynt 
were in like manner originally swy and swynt, though this 
ancient form is no longer extant even in Erse. But of this 
there is no proof, but that which is afforded by analogy. 

Paragraph 3. 

Pronouns in regimen or Pronominal Suffixes. 

Such is the entire and proper form of the personal 
pronouns in the Celtic dialects, and they probably 
represent a very old or the primitive state of these 
parts of speech in the Indo-European languages. 
It may indeed in many instances be observed, that 
the Celtic pronouns are the nominatives from which 
the oblique cases in those languages may be regu- 
larly formed, whereas these cases, in several ex- 
amples that might be adduced, have little or no affi- 
nity to the vocables which now stand to them in the 
relation of nominatives. The real nominatives ap- 
pear to have been lost, and other words substituted 
in their places, but in the Celtic, which has no de- 
clension of pronouns, the original forms, perhaps in 
consequence of this very circumstance, have been 
preserved. 



128 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

But besides the series of forms above given, the 
pronouns in the Celtic language are also found in a 
state considerably modified by composition or con- 
struction with other words. The preceding are all 
separate and complete words by themselves ; those 
to which I now allude are abbreviated, or modified 
and affected in orthography by the words which are 
immediately prefixed. I shall shew this by ex- 
amples, and take, in the first place, the pronouns as 
governed by and blended with some of the preposi- 
tions c . 

The following are the forms in which the per- 
sonal pronouns appear when following the preposi- 
tion at, to. 



mi or vi ^ 




( av 




as attav, to me. 


ti or di 




at 




attat, to thee. 


evo 


> is changed into - 


I aw and 
° 


attaw ) 

[■to him. 
atto J 


hi J 




ti 




atti, to her. 


ni ^ 




Tom 




as attorn, to us. 


chwi > 


becomes 


i och 




attoch, to you. 


hwynt J 




(ynt 




attynt, to them. 



The preposition tan, under, changes them in a si- 
milar manner, as 

1 tanav tanom. 

2 tanat tanoch. 

3 tano and tani tanynt. 
Rhwng, between changes them as follows : 

1 rhyng-ov rhyng-om. 

% rhyng-ot rhyng-och. 

{rhyng-dho rhyng-dh-ynt or 

rhyng-dhi rhyng-th-ynt. 

c In what remains to be said on the subject of the pronouns, 
I shall, to avoid perplexity, confine myself to the Welsh dialect 
of the Celtic, premising that in the Erse dialect very nearly the 
same facts are to be observed. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS 129 

Yn, in, changes them thus : 

vnov, in me. ynom, in us. 

ynot, in thee. ynoch, in you. 

yntho, or ) . . 
yndho, J m J>thynt,or 

ynthi, or ) • , } ,, . 

di ' f m r " ly ndn y nt ? in tnem - 

Trwy, through, alters them thus : 

trwyov, trwyom. 

trwyot, trwyoch. 



trwydho 
trw 



ydho ) n 

ydhi, 1 trwydhynt. 



Wrth, by, thus : 

wrthyv, wrthym. 

wrthyt, wrthych. 

wrtho, 



wrth 



. ' r wrthynt. 



The preceding are all very analogous, but another 
form occurs in the combination of the pronouns with 
the preposition i, to, of which it is important to take 
notice. 

1. im" or ym", to me. in' or yn", to us. 

2. it 1 or yt"*, to thee. iwch, to you. 

3. idho, to him. idhynt, to them, 
idhi, to her. 

Nor are these mutations of the personal pronouns 
confined to the instance of their combinations with 
prepositions. They are thus compounded with the 
possessive pronoun or adjective eidho, own. 

eidhov, my own. eidhom, our own. 

eidhot, thy own. eidhoch, your own. 

eidho, his own. eidhont 

eidhi, her own. eidhynt 



J- their own. 



The Welsh grammarians deduce analytically the 

K 



130 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

following series of forms under which the personal 
pronouns occur when thus modified by the preceding 
words. 



( av, ov, yv, or m\ 
at, ot, yt, or t\ 
aw, o, or dho. 
i or dhi. 



ti 

evo 

hi Y becomes 

ni 

chwi 

hwynt 



om, ym, or n\ 
och, ych, or ch. 
. ynt, sometimes dhynt. 



The reader can hardly fail to be struck with the 
very obvious relation which discovers itself between 
this series of pronouns and the personal endings of 
the Welsh verbs, of which the different forms were 
given in the preceding chapter. The comparison of 
the two tables will at once prove that the termina- 
tions of the verbs are in fact a series of pronominal 
suffixes, and the problem which regards the origin 
of these personal inflections may be considered as 
solved, in so far as it regards the Welsh and the 
other dialects of the Celtic language. There is in- 
deed in Welsh a considerable variety in the per- 
sonal terminations of the verbs, and this may be 
supposed with probability to have been a conse- 
quence of the poverty of the Celtic language in re- 
spejct to the conjugations in temporal and modal in- 
flections, or in those changes by which the differences 
of mood and tense are indicated. In these modifi- 
cations the Celtic has fewer resources than many 
other languages ; and it was probably found neces- 
sary to supply the deficiency by a considerable va- 
riety in the personal endings, which in some mea- 
sure help to characterise the tenses. There is not, 
however, in these a greater diversity than among 

- I 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 131 

the abbreviated pronouns, and nearly all the verbal 
terminations are to be found in the preceding table. 
Tli is I shall now shew by a comparison of the verbal 
endings with the pronouns. 

Paragraph 4. 

Comparison of the personal endings of verbs with 
the contracted forms of the pronouns. 
It may be remembered that in a former section 
the personal endings of the verbs in the Welsh lan- 
guage were said to be reducible for the most part to 
four, or rather three principal forms. These are as 
follows : 

First form. Second form. Third form. 

Sing. Sing. Sing. 

1. -av -ais -wn 

2. -i -aist -it 

3. root simply -odh -ai. 

Plur. Plur. Plur. 

1. -wn -om -em or ym 

2. -wch -och ~ech or ych 

3. -ant -ont -ent or ynt. 

If the reader will only compare this table with 
that of abbreviated pronouns contained in the end of 
the last paragraph he will perceive at once their re- 
lation. 

The plural terminations are precisely the pro- 
nouns. The first set presents the greatest variety, 
but even these are traced among the pronouns ; in' or 
yn' and iwch, being the forms which the pronouns ni 
and chwi assume after the proposition i. The first 
of these, in' or yn', seems a more natural change of 
ni, than the more usual om or ym, which is so re- 

K 2 



132 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

mote from ni as to give rise to a suspicion that the 
Welsh language had once a pronoun resembling the 
«/xe or ape$ of the Greeks, and that this has been lost, 
notwithstanding the permanent character of the Cel- 
tic dialects. 

The personal endings in the singular number are 
more various, but they are still analogous to the ab- 
breviated pronouns. In the first form for example, 
which is that of the future or present tense, the first 
person has the ending in av, which the pronoun mi 
or vi generally assumes in regimen, as above shewn. 
The ais of the second form is not pronominal, but an 
inflection characteristic of the tense, the syllable ais 
or as being introduced in the past tenses of the Cel- 
tic verb, nearly as the od or ed in the Teutonic con- 
jugations ; it is brought in before the pronominal 
termination, as in the plurals carasom, carasoch, 
carasant. The second person, in two out of the 
three forms, has the abbreviated pronoun as a suffix, 
either in it or t. In the first form, the ending i 9 
though it does not appear among the abbreviated 
pronouns, is the termination of the separate pronoun 
of the second person, and this is therefore probably a 
suffix. The third person is differently constituted. 
In the first form of the verb, as in carav, ceri, car, 
from the word caru to love, or in bydhav, bydhi, 
bydh, from the verb substantive, the third person is 
merely the verbal root used, as in the Semitic lan- 
guages, without any suffix. In the third form ai 
was perhaps ae, and derived from eve, or its mo- 
dification as used in regimen e. The ending in odJi 
seems anomalous in the Welsh language, though it 
nearly resembles the termination of the third person 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 133 

in other idioms, as the Teutonic aith, or ot*. The 
Welsh suffix, if formed regularly from the pronoun, 
would be in o or aw ; and this actually occurs in the 
future tense of the subjunctive mood, which does not 
fall under either of the forms above stated, but has 
the singular number thus : 

1. bydhwyv, 2. bydhych, 3. bydho. 

Paragraph 5. 
General result in respect to the Celtic verbs. 

On a review of this analysis it appears clearly that 
the Welsh verbal terminations are in general merely 
abbreviated or modified pronouns, affixed to the 
verbal roots ; and this conclusion does not rest merely 
upon a probable conjecture, on which the gramma- 
rians of other Indo-European languages have been 
obliged to found it, but on the more substantial fact, 
that the very terminations in question are actually 
to be identified with the pronouns as they are used 
on other occasions in an abbreviated form. 



SECTION VI. 

Conclusions respecting the personal inflections of verbs in the 
other Indo-European languages. 

As it has been, I trust, satisfactorily proved that 
the inflection of verbs in the Welsh language con- 
sists in the addition of pronominal suffixes to the 
verbal roots, and as in a former section sufficient evi- 
dence appeared, of the affinity and original sameness 
of the verbal inflections in all these languages, we are 
entitled to infer without hesitation, that in the other 

a Is it the abbreviated form of the pronoun (dho) reversed ? 
K 3 



134 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

languages which helong to this stock, the verbs are 
inflected on the same principle, and that although 
in many instances they are no longer extant, pro- 
nouns formerly existed in all these idioms more or 
less analogous to the Welsh pronouns. 

It will be worth while to go a little more mi- 
nutely into this consideration. 

1. The pronoun of the third person plural in 
Welsh is hwynt in the entire form, and ynt in the 
contracted one, which as a verbal suffix is ynt, ent, 
ont, ant. In the other languages the terminations 
of the verb are as follows : 

In Greek, ovti, em, av, ovto, k. t. A. 
In Sanskrit, anti, unt, an. 
In Latin, ant, ent, unt, anto, ento, &c. 
In Teutonic, and, aina, ont, ant, on, &c. 

These languages have no personal pronoun now 
extant similar to hwynt or ynt ; but, from the consi- 
derations above adverted to, it is probable that such 
a pronoun existed in them. 

2. The Welsh separate pronoun of the first person 
plural is ni, which is to be recognised in other lan- 
guages in the oblique, if not in the nominative cases b . 
The contracted form of this pronoun in n' enters 
into some of the Welsh tenses as a suffix, but most 
of them have the other Welsh pronoun of this per- 
son, om or ym. This, as we have observed, can 
scarcely be derived from ni, but rather comes from 
some separate pronoun originally common to all 

a Viz. in Sanskrit, *1 1 — nau. 

in Greek, vai 

in Latin, nos 

in Russian, nas. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 135 

these languages, which must have been analogous to 
the Greek ape or a/xe^, or perhaps a plural formed 
from the nominative singular mi. However this may 
have been, the termination, am, em, ym is really a 
contracted pronoun in the Welsh language, and 
must have existed as such in the cognate idioms. 
The following endings may therefore be regarded as 
pronominal suffixes : 

In Greek, apeg, opes. 

In Sanskrit, amah, or amas, am. 

In Latin, amus, emus, imus, umus. 

In Teutonic, ames, omes, aima, am. 

3. The separate pronoun of the second person 
plural in Welsh is chwi, and the abbreviated one 
och or yen, which, as we have seen, is also the suffix 
in the endings of verbs for this person. All the 
other Indo-European languages have a dental con- 
sonant in the place of the Welsh guttural or palatine 
letter, as in the 

Teutonic dialects, aith, ith, uth, ot, et. 

In Sanskrit, at'ha, t'ha, or ta. 

In Greek, are, ere, re, 

In Latin, atis, ate, etis, ete, itis, ite. 

What the separate pronoun was in these languages 
from which the termination of the verb is contracted, 
we can scarcely hope to discover ; but the fact being- 
proved that the Celtic verb is here formed by means 
of a pronominal suffix, we may infer from analogy 
that the same construction holds in the other lan- 
guages. 

4. We have seen that the separate pronoun of the 
first person singular in Welsh is mi or vi, and the 

K 4 



136 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

constructive pronoun av, ov, yv, or m\ The verbal 
suffix is av or yv: in the Erse dialect it is am, aim, or 
im. In most other languages m is the characteristic 
consonant of this person, with or without a subse- 
quent vowel, as, 

In Greek, fxi, as eifjj, ti8yj[jli. 

In Sanskrit, mi, or m, as bhavami, abhavishyam. 

In Latin, m, as inquam, sum, amabam. 

Although the pronouns extant in these languages 
do not come so near to the above terminations 
as the Welsh mi, vi, and m', still they may account 
for it tolerably well. 

In Greek and in Latin, the eyw or ego probably 
gave rise to the ending of verbs in o, which is per- 
haps a later form than the termination in mi. 

In other instances the first person singular has no 
addition to the simple verb, or to the common cha- 
racteristic of the tense. The verb was used in this 
state either with the separate pronoun or without 
any. The other persons are marked by characteris- 
tic additions, and it was sufficient for the first to be 
without any suffix. But while the Teutonic dialects 
have the first person in this state, the Celtic dialects, 
like the Semitic languages, have the third person 
most frequently in the simple state, or in that which 
is nearest to the verbal root. 

b This is contrary to the opinion of some eminent gramma- 
rians, who regard the form in /xi as more recent than that in o. 
Before this opinion can be allowed to be probable, some answer 
must be given to the question, How it can have happened that 
the newer forms in the Greek language should resemble those 
of the Sanskrit so much more than the older ones, as they would 
do on the hypothesis? 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 137 

5. The second and third persons singular end as 

follows. 





Second person. 


Third person. 


Greek, 


at or ?, 


■n, to, or €i. 


Sanskrit, 


si or s, 


ti, or t. 


Latin, 


s. 


t. 


Teutonic, 


ais, is, es. 


eith, eth, t. 



Here there seems to be, at the first view of the 
subject, an interchange of pronouns; for the pronoun 
of the second person, in its usual state, was in all 
these languages nearly the same as in Welsh. It 
was tv, tu, twam, (i. e. radically tu,) thu, in Greek, 
Latin, Sanskrit, and Gothic respectively : and the 
pronoun of the third person is sah, and sa in San- 
skrit and Gothic. But we may observe in the first 
place that the original form of the third person was 
in all these languages to, tali, te, or at least a t with a 
vowel adjoined. This is indicated by the analogy 
of the neuter gender and the oblique cases. The 
Greek was originally, 



Tog, Ta, to. 

> te, ta, tud, 



The Latin with 
is prefixed ( ? ) 

r™ o. i tos or ) 

The Sanskrit, , h ta, tot, or tud. 

The Gothic, tha, tho, tha, or thata. 

A modification of these pronouns, according to the 
rule adopted in the other persons, would produce the 
endings of verbs in the third person singular exactly 
as they are above laid down. 

In those instances in which the third person of the 
verb has an ending in a vowel, we may account for 
the peculiarity by supposing, either that the suffix 



138 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

has been omitted, as it was above shewn to be 
in some languages, or that a contracted pronoun, 
akin to the e of the Welsh or the e of the Greek 
language, has been used. 

The personal pronouns of the second and third 
persons are so nearly alike, that it was found neces- 
sary to distinguish the verb connected with each by 
some discriminating mark ; and this was easily done 
by taking a form of one personal pronoun, which 
was perhaps originally only a dialectic difference, 
but in which the sibilant consonant is substituted 
for a dental one. It is well known that $ and * are 
easily interchanged, as when the Greek a a- is trans- 
muted into tt, and in the present instance tv has 
been actually changed for crv. There being two 
forms of the pronoun, a sibilant and a dental one, 
the former was preferred for the characteristic of 
the second person in those instances in which the 
dental had been appropriated to the third person. 

We shall endeavour in the sequel to make some 
of these remarks more certain and explicit, by an 
examination of particular tenses and a comparison 
of the different forms of verbs in the several lan- 
guages of the same stock. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 1559 



CHAPTER VI. 

Of the Inflection of Verbs through Tenses and Moods. 
Section I. General view of the subject. 

X HE observations comprised in the two last chap- 
ters relate merely to the personal endings of verbs, 
or to those inflections which serve to distinguish 
their different persons and numbers. The modify- 
ing principles, on which depends the discrimination 
of moods and tenses, yet remain to be analysed and 
compared. These are two distinct subjects of in- 
quiry. I have been induced to enter into the former 
at some length for two reasons. The principal of 
these is, the convincing proof which the inflections 
already surveyed appear to furnish of a deeply- 
rooted affinity between the Celtic dialects and the 
other languages of Europe and Asia which have 
been compared with them. Another motive has 
been the hope of throwing some light on the gram- 
matical principles governing the inflection of verbs in 
all these idioms. How far this attempt has been 
successful my readers must judge. I ought now to 
proceed to the more arduous task of examining the 
structure of verbs through their different moods and 
tenses, and of tracing the relations which the latter 
bear to each other in different languages. But this 
endeavour is in the outset obstructed by great, and, 
I fear, as yet hardly surmountable difficulties. The 
structure of the Teutonic languages, and the analo- 
gies of these to the Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, have 
already occupied the attention of several accurate 



140 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

and ingenious writers, who have been mentioned in 
the preceding pages ; but the Celtic dialects may be 
said to furnish a new and almost unexplored field. 
The attempts which have been made to elucidate 
their etymology have been, with very few exceptions, 
remarkably unsuccessful ; and it will perhaps be long 
before any person, possessed of the requisite opportu- 
nities for performing this task in the best manner, 
may be found ready to undertake it. In this de- 
ficiency of materials, and in the want of any correct 
arrangement of such as exist, I am aware that I 
enter upon the remainder of my inquiry under very 
unfavourable circumstances. I am quite unable to 
proceed in the investigation of the Celtic language 
and its affinities with that accuracy and lucid ana- 
lysis, which Professors Bopp and Grimm have ap- 
plied to the idioms which they have examined and 
compared. Perhaps, indeed, the subject itself does 
not admit of such illustration. I expect, however, 
to furnish proofs which shall be deemed a sufficient 
groundwork for the inferences to be founded upon 
them. 

I shall enter upon this part of my subject, as in 
the former instance, by examining the particular 
features in other idioms, which I mean afterwards 
to compare with those of the Celtic dialects. 



SECTION II. 

Modifications of Verbs common to the Sanskrit and Greek. 

The most striking and extensive marks of rela- 
tionship are to be traced between the Sanskrit con- 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 141 

jugations of verbs and the Latin and Greek, but 
particularly between the Sanskrit verbs and the 
Greek verbs in pi. The Sanskrit verbs may in- 
deed be said to be governed by the same laws of 
conjugation as the latter. But, in making this re- 
mark, we must distinguish three series or different 
sets of Greek verbs in /x<, and allow the two former 
to constitute in some respects an exception to this 
analogy, though in another point of view they will 
be found to confirm it. The first are those verbs 
which, besides the characteristic endings of this con- 
jugation, have also a reduplication of the first syl- 
lable, or an addition which is a substitute for one, as 
the verbs tiSyj^i, &/&»jk/, and Janifu. There are verbs 
in Sanskrit which have a similar reduplication : it 
is not, however, a general character, but the mark 
of a particular conjugation, which ranks as the third 
in the series of ten classes. Verbs of the third con- 
jugation reduplicate the first consonant, or make 
some equivalent prefix. Thus from the verbal 
root da, to give, comes the verb dadami, dadasi, da- 
dati, answering to &/&«/*/, $/&»$-, &/&a>o-/ or &/W/, which 
prefixes this reduplication through the four first 
tenses formed like the three first in Greek from the 
present tense, but has no remarkable peculiarity in 
the other parts of the verb. Many other Sanskrit 
verbs, which do not belong to the third conju- 
gation, undergo a modification not unlike that of 
the root of lo-Typi. Thus from the root ^7 — 
sht'ha, to stand, comes the present tense tisht'hami, 
tisht'hasi, tisht'hati. A second class of Greek verbs 
in pi insert the syllable w between the verbal root 
and the personal endings, as the verb ^evy-w-fja. 
There is likewise a particular class of Sanskrit verbs 



142 



EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



analogous to these, and having the same distinction, 
which is considered as the character of the fifth 
conjugation : but these are, as in Greek, a compa- 
ratively small number of verbs. Those Greek verbs 
in pi, however, which bear the nearest resemblance 
to the generality of Sanskrit verbs, are such as make 
no prefix to the initial of the root, nor any insertion, 
but merely add the personal termination. Among 
these we reckon </>^/x/, dico ; ic^p, scio ; elfxi, sum ; 
and elpi, vado. Some of the same class are obsolete 
in the present tense, and only used in the aorist, as 
fiyfjii, proficiscor, and yypypi senesco; and this last may 
be compared to the Sanskrit verb jarami, of the 
same meaning. 

Doric forms. 



yvjpaTi. 





Sanskrit. 


Greek. 


Si. 


jarami 


ytpyfAi 




jarasi 


7W 




jarati 


yyjpvja-i 


Du 


. jaravas 






jarat'has 


yvjpxTov 




jaratas 


y/jpocTOV 


PL 


jaramas 


yYjpafxev 




jarat'ha 


yvjpaTt 




jaranti 


yv\pa<Ji 



yripapeg (?) 



yypaVTi. 



Of the Prceterita Augmentata, or Pretet imperfect 
Tense and Aorists. 

There are two preterite tenses in Sanskrit verbs, 
which are deserving of particular notice, as they are 
formed in a manner very similar to that of two 
tenses of the Greek verb. One of them is analogous 
to the imperfect, and the other to the aorists; and 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 143 

there is no reason that forbids their being distin- 
guished by these terms. 

1. The imperfect is formed from the present tense 
by prefixing an augment, and abbreviating the per- 
sonal endings. The augment is the first short vowel 
3f — a, which corresponding with the short vowels 
of the Greeks might be represented indifferently by 
a or e. Thus are formed from 

tudami "| f atudam 

tudasi Y <J atudas 

tudati J [atudat. 

2. The aorist has three, or rather, according to 
professor Bopp's division, seven forms. Of these it 
is observed, that the four first agree more or less 
closely with the Greek first aorist, the fifth and sixth 
with the second aorist, and the seventh, which, be- 
sides an augment, admits a reduplication of the first 
syllable, with the preterpluperfect. Thus in the 
four first some make this tense by inserting s, or the 
syllable is, or sa, or sas, between the root and the 
personal endings, and by prefixing the augment to 
the root, the vowel of which undergoes a change by 
the forms guna and vriddhis. The root kship, pre- 
sent tense kshipami, makes the aorist akshoipsam. 
This is one of the examples given by Bopp, and the 
analogy is more striking, if the words are written as 
the Greeks would have written them, thus ; 

Root. Present tense. Aorist. 

The two succeeding forms of the aorist differ from 
the imperfect tense very nearly in the same manner 
in which the second aorist in Greek differs from the 
Greek imperfect. 



144 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

We shall find the insertion of s, sa, or as, to be a 
method used in other instances for the formation of 
tenses with a past signification. 



SECTION III. 

Forms common to Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. 
The preceding modifications of the verb are pecu- 
liar to the Sanskrit and the Greek languages. The 
Latin has an imperfect resembling the Greek in 
meaning, though formed by a totally different mode 
of inflection, but it has nothing analogous to the 
aorist. All these three languages agree in the cir- 
cumstance, that they frequently modify the present 
tense by an insertion of particular consonants be- 
tween the verbal root and the personal endings, 
which consonants are dropped in the further conju- 
gation of the verb. Such are the ktk 9 or isc, in such 
verbs as avaA/Wy and frigesco, the av, in alMvo^ai, 
afxapTavw, and the numerous verbs resembling them, 
which are analogous to the verbs of the ninth con- 
jugation in Sanskrit : the latter insert na between 
the root and the termination in the present tense a . 
These insertions are retained only in those tenses 
derived immediately from the present, as the imper- 
fect is in Latin and Greek : they are dropped in the 
preterperfect and other forms of the verb. 

The Teutonic language wants all these and many 
other variations : it has no tense formed by a mo- 
dification of the present. " The capability of flection 
" in the German verbs seems," says professor Grimm, 
" to have been greatly impaired. Of the passive 

a As krinami, krinasi, &c. from the root kri, pret. chi-kri-ya. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 145 

*' voice the last remains disappear with the Moeso- 
" Gothic : the middle voice is every where wanting, 
u with the exception of a reflected form in the old 
" northern dialect, which is in some degree analogous 
" to a middle voice. Four moods exist ; the infini- 
" tive, imperative, indicative, conjunctive, but there 
" is no optative. What is most to be regretted is the 
u loss of many tenses : only a present tense and a pre- 
" terite remain to us : the future, and all the different 
" degrees of the past signification, can no longer be 
" expressed by a change in the form of the verb it- 
" self b ." 

SECTION IV. 

Formation of the preterperfect in Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and 
Teutonic verbs. 
The preterperfect seems originally to have been 
formed on the same principle in the Greek, Latin, 
Sanskrit and Teutonic languages. Many changes 
in the forms of verbs have been produced by the 
addition of auxiliaries, or of particles inserted in or 
added to the root, but the preterperfect, in that me- 
thod of conjugation which appears to have been the 
primitive one, is an inflection properly so termed. 
A partial repetition of the verbal root itself seems to 
have been originally adopted to denote a past signifi- 
cation, implying the act to have been done and com- 
pleted. 

Paragraph 1. 

Preterite in Teutonic Verbs. 

The preterite of the strongly inflected conjugation, 

says Dr. Grimm, " must be considered as a chief 

" beauty of our language, as a character intimately 

b Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik. Theil. I. 

L 



146 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

" connected with its antiquity and its whole consti- 
" tution. Independently of the inflection in the 
" endings, of which the nature has already been 
" pointed out, it affects the roots themselves, and 
" that in a double manner ; either the beginning 
" of the root is repeated before itself, or the vowel 
" of the root, whether initial or medial, is modi- 
" fied. The Gothic language yet retains both me- 
" thods, it reduplicates and modifies : sometimes 
" it applies both methods at once. Reduplication 
" never affects the terminating consonants of the 
" root. In the other Teutonic dialects reduplication 
" disappears, if we except slight traces, and instead 
" of it an unorganized diphthong has been formed, 
" the doubling of the consonant being no more 
" thought of. 

" The reduplicating conjugation leaves the vowel 
" sound of the root unaltered, and only puts the 
" doubled syllable before the singular and plural of 
" the preterite both indicative and conjunctive, but 
" not before the participle. The modifying conju- 
" gation never leaves the vowel of the present tense 
" unaltered in the preterite. On this principle are 
" formed six reduplicating conjugations, and six of 
" the latter description." I must refer the reader 
for further particulars to Dr. Grimm's work, and 
shall here give merely an example of each of these 
twelve conjugations, all belonging to the strong or 
primitive Gothic inflection. Under each verb are in- 
serted the present indicative, the preterite first per- 
son singular and first person plural, and the par- 
ticiple. 
1. Conjugation. Salta — salio, I leap. 

Salta ; pret. saisalt, saisaltum ; saltans. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 147 

& Maita ; abstido, I cut. 

Maita; pret. mairaait, maimaitum ; maitans. 

3. Hlaupa ; curro, I run. 

Hlaupa ; pret. hlaihlaup, hlaihlaupum ; hlaupans. 

4. Slepa, dormio, I sleep. 

Slepa ; pret. saislep, saislepum ; slepans. 
.5. Laia, irrideo, I laugh. 

Laia ; pret. lailo, lailoum ; laians. 

6. Greta, ploro, I weep or grete, Scottish. 
Greta ; pret. gaigrot, gaigrotum ; gretans. 

Sixth Conjugation without reduplication. 

7. Svara, juro, I swear. 

Svara; pret. svor, svorum ; svarans. 

8. Skeina, luceo, I shine. 

Skeina; pret. skain, skinum ; skinans. 

9. Liuga, mentior, I lie. 

Liuga ; pret. laug, lugum ; lugans. 

10. Giba, do, I give. 

Giba ; pret. gab, gebum ; gibans. 

11. Stila, furor, I steal. 

Stila ; pret. stal, stelum ; stalans. 

12. Hilpa, adjuvo, I help. 

Hilpa ; pret. halp, hulpum ; hulpans. 

I have taken these examples in full, because the 
analogies which they display to the forms of our 
tongue are interesting to English readers. The 
Moeso-Gothic is far more perfect in its inflections 
than any other language of the same stock. In the 
later dialects they gradually fade away, but still the 
remains are reducible to the same system. 

The weaker form of verbal inflections is, according 
to Grimm, modern in comparison of the stronger 
form. For the grounds of this opinion I must refer 

L 2 



148 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

the reader to his work a . The preterite is formed 
by the insertion of a syllable of which d is the con- 
sonant, and this is regarded by Grimm as an abbre- 
viated auxiliary, derived from the verb to do, which 
in the Old High German is tuon. Thus sokida, I 
sought, is I "seek — did." The inflections of this verb 
tuon are very distinct in the Old High German, and 
appear to give some probability to Dr. Grimm's con- 
jecture as to the origin of the preterperfect tense, 
in the form which has become most frequently used 
in the modern German and English languages b . 

Paragraph 2. 

Preterperfect tense in Greek and Sanskrit 

The formation of the preterperfect tense in Greek 
and in Sanskrit is on principles so similar, that it 
requires more care to sum up the points in which 
they differ than those in which they agree. In both, 
the root, which frequently consists of one syllable, is 
preserved nearly in its entire state, with a final 
short vowel added to it, and a short syllable gene- 
rally prefixed, which is termed the reduplication. In 
Greek the vowel of the reduplication is always e, but 
in Sanskrit the vowel is the short one corresponding 
with that of the verbal root : thus from the root 
rJ4, — TV7r > which forms a verb of nearly the same 
meaning in Greek and in Sanskrit, the preterite 
is in one language rervyra, and in the other tii- 
topa. The reduplicated consonant in Greek is a te- 
nuis, and in Sanskrit the tenuis or media, when 
the root begins with an aspirate, and when double 
consonants are the initials, the first is alone redupli- 

a Deutsche Grammatik. th. i. p. 1040. 

b See p. 885, 1039, 1042, of Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 149 

cated. In this last case the two languages just 
mentioned have consulted euphony more than either 
the Latin or Teutonic, both of which repeat the double 
consonants. The principal vowel of the root under- 
goes a change in the preterperfect, which in Sanskrit 
is termed guna and vriddhis. This is analogous to 
the corresponding change in the Greek old preter- 
perfect, in such forms as fAepova and ol^a, and to the 
changes above alluded to in the Teutonic and Latin 
preterites. 

The following words will serve to exemplify this 
form of Sanskrit verbs : 

Root. Third person Present. Preterite. 

bhri bharati babhara. 

tri tarati tatara. 

tup tupati tiitopa. 

Paragraph 3. 
Of the preterperfect in Latin verbs. 
Many Latin verbs form the preterperfect by re- 
duplication, and there is reason to believe that the 
number was originally much more considerable. 
We may regard it as probable, that this was the 
oldest form of the preterperfect tense in the Latin 
language, as well as in the cognate idioms. 

In some respects the Latin reduplicated preterite 
agrees with the Teutonic, in others with the San- 
skrit, and with both more nearly than with the 
Greek. 

1. Aspirate and double consonants are redupli- 
cated in Latin as in Moeso-Gothic verbs ; this is 
avoided in Greek and Sanskrit. In the Moeso-Gothic 
we have from the verb sJcaidan, scheiden, to sepa- 
rate, the following : 

Skaida ; skaiskaid, skaiskaidum ; skaidans. 
L 3 



150 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

In Latin we have in like manner : 
sciscidi from scindo. 
spondeo spospondi not sospondi. 

fallo fefelli not Trefelli. 

2. The vowel of the reduplicated syllable is in 
Greek always e, in Moeso-Gothic ai. In Latin as 
well as in Sanskrit verbs the vowel of the verbal 
root is reduplicated ; as in Sanskrit, the verbal root 
mad, makes mamada, 



lish 


lilaisha, 


tup 


tutopa, 


in Latin, 




pedo 


pepedi, 


mordeo 


momordi, 


tundo 


tutudi, 


curro 


cucurri c , 



In Latin however the reduplicated syllable fol- 
lows the quantity of the verbal root ; in Sanskrit it 
is always short, whatever may be the quantity of the 
root. 

The following are some of the examples of redu- 
plication yet remaining in Latin verbs. 



memim, 1. 


e. memem. 


spospondi. 


momordi. 




pepedi. 


peperi. 
pupugi. 




poposci. 
sciscidi. 


tetigi. 

totondi. 

cucurri. 




pepigi, i. e. pepegi 

pepuli. 

cecidi. 


cecini, i. e. 


ceceni. 


cecidi. 


didici. 




tutudi. 


fefelli. 







c The apparent exceptions from this rule seem to admit of ex- 
planation. See Grimm, th. i. p. 1055. 

d Pango and Tvr)yvv^i being variations of Trrjyco. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 151 

Dr. Grimm has remarked that verbs which change 
a short vowel in the root or present tense into a long 
e in the preterperfect had originally a reduplication. 
Pango, or rather pago, makes pepigi, but compingo 
makes compegi. This proves the analogy of the two 
forms ; and on the model of pago, pepegi, contracted 
to pegi, we have 





capio, 


cepi. 




ago, 


egi. 


frango, i 


i. e. frago, 


fregi 




facio, 


feci. 




jacio, 


jeci. 




lego, 


legi. 




emo, 


emi. 




venio, 


veni. 




edo, 


edi. 




sedeo, 


sedi. 




fugio, 


fugi. 



It is observed, in confirmation of this remark, that 
these verbs have in many instances a reduplication, 
or, what is allied to it, an internal inflection, in the 
cognate languages ; as cepi resembles hqf in Gothic; 
fugi, 7r€(f)vya; legi, \e\oya; and venio, veni, the Moeso- 
Gothic verb which is analogous to come and came. 

The custom of reduplication in forming the pre- 
terite fell into disuse ; supplementary methods were 
found to answer the same purpose, the principal of 
which were the following. 

1. The insertion of the letter s before the final i, 
as in 



repo, 


reps; 


lego, 


lexi. 




L 4 



152 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

2. The insertion of the syllable av, Iv, mutable 
into u, as 

am-av-i. 

aud-iv-i. 

doc-u-i. 
The former of these methods is analogous to an 
inflection, of which we trace an extensive use, in the 
cognate languages ; the latter is quite peculiar to 
the Latin. The av has been thought to be allied to 
the bo and bam of the future and imperfect preterite. 



SECTION V. 

Of the remaining forms of the Verb — Potential, Optative, and 
Conjunctive moods — Future tenses — Middle and Passive 
voices. 

Most of the remaining forms of the verb appear 
to be simple inflections properly so termed, and not, 
as some have suspected, compound words. From this 
remark we must make an exception, as far as regards 
the pronominal suffixes, on which so much has al- 
ready been said ; for these are, as the reader is well 
aware, abbreviated words brought into composition 
with the verbs. With this exception, the moods and 
tenses of verbs which are now to be considered may 
be looked upon as formed in all probability by simple 
inflection. There are indeed some of these forms 
which have been thought by late writers to have 
derived their peculiar shades of meaning, in relation 
to time and mode, from the insertion or addition of 
significant particles, or other words of a similar use a . 

a I allude to Professor Bopp's opinion and to some other si- 
milar conjectures. According to Bopp's, the future tenses are 
compounds of a verbal root, or of an attributive vocable and 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 153 

But the instances in which this can be supposed 
with any degree of probability are, in comparison 
with others, very few, and the inference with respect 
to them is but doubtful at best. And in by far the 
greater number of examples composition of words 
seems to be out of the question ; and it is evident 
that a mere inflection has been employed, the ori- 
ginal or simple verb having been by design some- 
what modified in pronunciation, or by the addition 
or insertion of a consonant or vowel, so as to impart 
to it a sense in some mode or circumstance different 
from the primitive one. 

Thus it has often been remarked, that it is a cha- 
racter common to the conjunctive, potential, and op- 
tative forms of the verb to change proper vowels, 
and especially short vowels, into diphthongs. On 
this fact a somewhat whimsical theory has been 
founded by the learned and fanciful Professor Mur- 
ray. He~says, " The subjunctive of all Greek, Latin, 
" and Teutonic verbs arose from laying an emphasis 
" expressive of the conditional state of the mind on 
" the last syllable of the verb immediately before 
" the personal pronoun. This emphasis not only 
" drew the accent to the syllable, but also extended 
" it by the insertion of e or o short, the consequence 

certain forms of the verb substantive. This conjecture has been 
supported with great ingenuity, and has even in its favour a 
great number of coincidences. But I think it is by no means 
established. Those, however, who are not acquainted with Pro- 
fessor Bopp's able attempts to analyse the conjugations of verbs 
will find their trouble amply repaid in reading his " Conjugation- 
" system der Sanskritsprache," and likewise his observations 
subsequently published in the Annals of Oriental Litt. and still 
more fully in his Grammatica Critica Linguae Sanskritae. 



154 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

" of protracted pronunciation." " The voice was 
" kept up, and this inserted vowel gradually slid 
" into union with that which supported the pronoun, 
" and formed with it a long sound, expressive of sus- 
" pense and incomplete indication." " The optative 
" of all tenses had a similar origin. In wishing, we 
" dwell on the word, and give it an unusual empha- 
" sis, the sign of strong, lingering, ardent desire." 
" In grief the emphasis is long, and uttered with a 
" wailing, melancholy tone. The connection between 
" grief 'and desire is close and obvious : 

ws dirore KpetovT ' AfxapvyK^a Ochttov 'E7retot — 

" The effects of this state of mind on the medium 
" of thought, are that the vowels are protracted, 
" while the consonants rather sink and vanish." 

Whatever may be thought of this explanation, the 
fact to which it relates is undoubtedly observed in 
the conjugations of Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, and Teu- 
tonic verbs. In all these, the substitution of diph- 
thongs, and longer or more numerous vowel sounds, 
is characteristic of the optative, potential, and con- 
junctive moods. 

Paragraph 2. 
Of the Future Tenses. 

The formation of future tenses deserves a parti- 
cular notice. 

Proper future tenses formed by inflection are en- 
tirely wanting in the Teutonic languages. In Latin, 
Greek, and Sanskrit they are yet extant ; and in all 
these, analogies are to be traced in their formation. 

The Sanskrit has two distinct future tenses, which 
are formed as follows. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 155 

The first future, or perfect future, is formed by- 
adding td to the verbal root, or rather by inserting 
it between the root and the pronominal suffix. This 
syllable is often preceded by an additionally inserted 
I, and in some of the persons it is tas rather than 
td. Thus from the root 2pcJ — yach, or rather the 
verb yachami, aheu, we have yachitasmi, ah^o-a, or, 
as I here divide the words, 

Present, yach-a-mi. 
Future, yach-i-tas-mi. 

The second future instead of the syllable ta or 
tas, inserts sya, as yachisyami, or 

yach-i-shya-mi. 

The ^ — s is converted into %\ — sh b by the San- 
skrit rules of euphony. 

Future Tenses in Greek. 

The first future in Greek is formed in a manner 
very similar to that of the second future in San- 
skrit. 

The termination of the first future seems origin- 
ally, as it is observed by Matthise, to have been the 
same throughout, e<ru from co. Thus we find oAeVco 
from oAci>, apeo-a from apw. The middle voice okeo-ofxat 
would indicate an active oAeVo/x*, which perhaps once 
existed, and which would be the regular form if the 
suffix fu had been preserved through the different 
tenses in Greek as it has been in Sanskrit. 

b The Sanskrit sibilant SJ i s neither s nor sh. It is said to be 
pronounced by passing the voice, with the tip of the tongue ap- 
plied to the fore part of the palate, and is represented in Wil- 
kins's Grammar by s. Sh is perhaps the mode of expressing it 
most nearly in our orthography. 



15(3 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

The first future consists therefore in Greek in the 
insertion of e$ before the pronominal suffixes, in 
analogy with the Sanskrit sya or ishya. 

It may be observed, that the terminations of this 
form of the verb, both in Greek and in Sanskrit, are 
identical with the future tense of the verb substan- 
tive, in Greek eaofjuu and in Sanskrit syami. This 
is the principal foundation for the hypothesis of Pro- 
fessor Bopp, who considers many modifications of 
attributive verbs to be derived from a composition 
of a verbal root with the tenses of the verb substan- 
tive. If other tenses corresponded with the termi- 
nations of the verb substantive so closely as the fu- 
ture, there would be sufficient evidence to support 
this opinion. At present, we can only regard it as 
an ingenious conjecture. The Celtic language, how- 
ever, presents a feature which gives it a degree of 
additional probability : to this we shall have occa- 
sion hereafter to advert. 

2. The second future in Greek is a slight inflec- 
tion of the present, as key®, 7ri6S>, from \eyco 9 vetOu. The 
present tense is often used for the future by the 
poets ; and this form seems to have been originally a 
mere change in the accent or emphasis of the pre- 
sent, designed thus to mark a variety in the sense. 
Some grammarians c have indeed maintained that 
the supposed second future is merely a first fu- 
ture in a different form, in which case there would 
be no second future in Greek. This would be con- 
trary to the analogy of the cognate languages. 
However, it must be allowed that there is not in 
Greek, as there is in Latin and in Sanskrit, a second 

c See Dawes, Miscellanea Critica, p. 372. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 157 

future distinguished from the first by a difference of 
sense. 

Latin Futures. 

The future tenses in the Latin language are 
formed in a great variety of ways. 

1. The most simple form is a slight modification 
of the present, regain, reges, reget being substituted 
for rego, (which, according to the analogy already 
pointed out, was perhaps originally regim,) regis, 
regit. This recalls those languages in which the 
present tense is used for a future, and the British 
future creclav is nearly like it. It is still more 
closely allied to the conjunctive present regam, re- 
gas, regat. A slight difference in pronunciation was 
adopted, to mark these varieties in the meaning or 
in the relations of the verb to time and mode. This 
is an instance of simple inflection. Here is no place 
for the hypothesis of compound verbs, or of particles 
introduced and interpolated. 

2. Another mode of giving to verbs a future sig- 
nification adopted by the Latin grammarians was 
that of inserting a syllable, a method analogous to that 
practised in Greek and in Sanskrit conjugations ; 
but instead of the ea or <r of the Greek futures, and 
the sya or ishya of the Sanskrit, the Latins inserted 
er between the verb and the pronominal suffix, the 
verb retaining the characteristic of the preterper- 
fect tense ; as 

rex-er-o, rex-er-imus. 

audiv-er-o, audiv-er-imus. 

The substitution of r instead of s appears in this 

instance, as in a great many inflections in the Latin 

language, to be an innovation, originating either 

from some preference on account of euphony, or from 



158 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

accidental variation of utterance. The old Latin 
form was in all probability similar to the Greek, es 
being the syllable interpolated. Rexeso and rexesi- 
mus gave a harsh and difficult sound, and were soft- 
ened to rexero and rexerimus d . 

3. A third species of future tense in Latin verbs 
arises from the insertion of b or rather of ab, eb, or 
ib. Even this has been referred to the composition 
of an attributive root with the verb substantive. 
Recourse has been had here to the verb fuo, analo- 
gous to bhu or be, as in the former instance to the 
verb 3fH — as, esse, or elvai. The terminations of 
the Latin future amabo, bis, bit, are supposed by 
Professor Bopp to have been derived from a Latin 
future of the verb substantive analogous to the An- 
glo-Saxon beo, bys, byth. 

It is remarkable, with respect to both the Latin 
futures, that a slight change merely of the termination 
gives rise to a form of the verb, which has a preter- 
ite signification, as amavero (perhaps originally 
written amaverim, but subsequently distinguished 
from that conjunctive form) makes amaveram, and 
amabo (amabim?) makes amabam. This circum- 
stance tends to render it most probable that there is 
nothing in the inserted ba or bo, which by itself 
gives either a past or future sense, and that it is 
merely through conventional use that any precise 
distinction of time is obtained from this modification 
of the verb. In Sanskrit and in Greek, as well as in 
Latin, the future tense is converted into a preterite 
by a change of the termination ; this is connected in 

d On the substitution of r for s, I must refer the reader to 
sect. 6. of chapter ii. in which this subject is considered. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 159 

the two last mentioned languages with the addition 
of the augment 

The facility indeed with which these preterite 
forms of the verb, either with a slight modification, 
or without any change, are adopted with a future 
meaning, seems remarkable, when we first con- 
template it ; but the frequent occurrence of a parallel 
fact in different languages is calculated to lessen our 
surprise. What can be more strange and apparently 
anomalous than the changes connected in Hebrew 
with the use of the Vau Conversivum ? In Hebrew 
the future imperative, optative, and potential forms 
are all identified, or nearly so, with each other, or 
one modification of the verb answers to all. 

In like manner we find corresponding forms of 
the verb, which may be considered as the same iden- 
tical inflections of the verbal root, (if we make allow- 
ance for the varieties of orthography and termina- 
tion proper to the cognate languages, or for the 
stated interchange of letters between them,) denot- 
ing in one language a future, and in another a po- 
tential, or even a preterite tense, with something of 
the potential or conjunctive signification attached to 
it. Thus the Sanskrit future, the Greek aorist op- 
tative, and the Latin preterpluperfect have nearly 
the same endings. From the Sanskrit root yach we 
have in the future, 

yach -ishyami. 

From airea, aor. 1. opt. an- -YjaaifJLi. 

From quaero in Latin, quaes-issem. 

In the plural, yach -ishyamus. 

air -YjvaifAtv, or fxeg. 
quaes-issemus. 

Here ishyami, ecra/p, and issem, in which the e 



160 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

makes emus and etis long, and was nearly equi- 
valent to a diphthong, afford striking analogies, and 
are in fact the same form with slight varieties of 
orthography, but somewhat greater variety in sig- 
nification. 

Paragraph 3. 
Middle and Passive Voices. 

The Sanskrit has in its verbs three voices nearly 
corresponding with the Greek. 

The voices in Sanskrit corresponding with the 
Greek middle and passive form themselves by a si- 
milar change of termination with that of the verbs 
in pi : as %!$»*§, or rather &*&yn, is changed into &/&GTa/, 
so bhavati is converted into bhavatai. I cannot but 
believe that the original form of the verb in San- 
skrit was 



bha vam ai, ^ ( bha vami . 

bhavasai, >- from ■< bhavasi. 
bhavatai, J l bhavati. 



but the first person is, according to the established 
inflections of the Sanskrit language, bhavai, instead 
of bhavamai. 

I shall not pursue further at present the inflec- 
tions of verbs in the different voices. The reader 
will find enough to answer my chief design in a 
succeeding chapter, in which examples of the re- 
gular verbs are inserted. 

The termination most characteristic of passive 
tenses in Latin, viz. r, must here be mentioned, as 
it serves as a point of comparison between the Celtic 
and the Latin verbs. 

Another point in which we shall find a relation 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 161 

between the Latin and the Celtic verbs, as likewise 
between the Greek and Celtic, is the defective 
state of the inflection of persons in the passive 
tenses. But we shall again take notice of this cir- 
cumstance in its proper place. 



M 



162 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



CHAPTER VII. 

Illustration of the principles developed in the preceding chap- 
ter. Conjugation of the verb substantive and of attributive 
verbs, both in the other Indo-European languages and in the 
Celtic dialects. 

Section I. General Remarks. Analysis of the Verb Substan- 
tive in several languages. 

J. HE preceding remarks will perhaps be deemed 
sufficient to explain the general principles of verbal 
inflection in the languages to which they refer ; but 
before I can proceed to my ultimate object, which is 
to compare the Celtic verbs with those of the idioms 
supposed to be cognate with the Celtic language, it 
is requisite to illustrate the principles now developed 
by some particular examples. I shall with this view 
lay before my readers a brief analysis of the verb 
substantive in Sanskrit, pointing out in the first 
place the agreements of the Sanskrit with the other 
languages generally allowed to be allied to it. I 
shall afterwards endeavour to illustrate in a similar 
manner the Celtic inflections, and to shew that they 
manifestly partake in the same general analogies. 

I have already observed, in the list of verbal roots 
contained in a preceding section, that there are in 
Sanskrit two verbs substantive, of which cognates 
are found in various idioms. They are the verb 
3TtT5T — asmi, from the root as, corresponding with 
esse or sum in Latin and elp) in Greek, and H^TPT — 
bhavami from the root bhu, allied to the old Latin 
verb fuo, and in the sense of oriri, nasci, which 
also belongs to this Sanskrit root, to the verb <f>vu 
or (pvvai in Greek. There is, I believe, no language 
in which both of these verbs are extant in a com- 
a Rosen, Radices Sanskritse, p. 52, 53. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 163 

plete state, but they are least defective in Sanskrit, 
which has lost many tenses of the verb asmi, though 
it has preserved the whole of bhavami. The Per- 
sian has two corresponding verbs, buden, and am re- 
sembling asmi : they are both defective, and each 
contributes some tenses towards the conjugation of 
the verb substantive, which is thus made up of their 
fragments. The Sclavonian verb substantive is 
formed from similar elements ; the present tense and 
those dependent on it are nearly allied to asmi, and 
the past tenses are derived from but' or bud' the 
cognate of buden or bhu. The Teutonic languages 
display the same formation: ist or is belongs to the 
former; beon, be, been, to the latter element. In 
Latin fuo and esse are combined in a similar man- 
ner. The Celtic language, as I shall shew in the 
following section, has one of these verbs in a more 
perfect state than any other language except the 
Sanskrit. The verb bu or bydh, corresponding with 
bhu or buden, is nearly complete, if not entirely so; 
but there are only fragments, as in other languages, 
which resemble the cognates of asmi. 

Paragraph 1. 
Verb asmi and its cognates. 
I shall now compare the principal parts of the 
verb asmi, and subjoin some corresponding forms in 
the cognate languages. 

Present tense. 
1. In Sanskrit. 

First person. Second person. Third person. 

Sing. asmi asi asti 

Plur. smah or smus st'ha santi 

N. These plural forms were originally (?) 
asmus ast'ha asanti. 



164 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



2. 


In Greek 


according to the old forms 


Sing. 


€fJ.[JLl 


eaai 


5 V 

€(TTl 


Plur. 


elfins 


€(TT€ 

S. In Latin. 


€VTl 


Sing. 


esum 


es 


est 


Plur. 


sumus 


estis 
4. In Persian. 


sunt 


Sing. 


am 


iy 


est 


Plur. 


Im 


id 


end 



5. In Sclavonian b . 
Sing. yesm' yesi vest' 

Plur. yesmi yeste sut'forjesut' 

6. In Lettish or Lithuanian . 
Sing. esmi essi esti 

Plur. esme este esti 

7. In Moeso-Gothic. 
Sing. i'm is ist 

Plur. siyum siyuth sind 

which according to Dr. Grimm was originally in 
the plural, 

isum isuth isind 

or, isam isith isand. 

It is at once evident, that all these are slight mo- 
difications of the same element conjugated by means 
of the same suffixes. The variation between the 
different languages is not exceeding such as exists 
between proximate dialects of the same speech. 

The preterimperfect tense is not to be traced 
with so much regularity. It is in Sanskrit, 
Sing. asam asis asit 

Plur. asma asta asan. 

b Grimm, I. p. 1064. Vater. p. 98. c Grimm, ibid. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 1G5 

In Latin, esam was probably the old form of eram, 
for B, as we have seen, was often changed into r, and 
esam would regularly form esem in the subjunctive, 
which is actually found, 

Sing. esam esas esat 

Plur. esamus esatis esant. 

The second form of the verb in the arrangement 
adopted by Sanskrit grammarians is the potential. 
The potential form of the verb asmi bears a strong 
analogy to the old Latin potential siem, and, as M. 
Bopp has also shewn, to the Moeso-Gothic potential. 

Singular. 



Sanskrit, 


syam 


syas 


syat 


Latin, 


siem 


sies 


siet 


Gothic, 


d siyau 


siyais 
Plural. 


siyai. 


Sanskrit, 


syam a 


syata 


syus 


Latin, 


siemus 


sietis 


sient 


Gothic, 


siyaima 


siyaith 


siyai] 



It may be observed that all these words have lost 
the initial vowel a or e, and that if it were restored 
the preceding forms would bear a near analogy to 
ecraifxi, which, though not extant, would be a regu- 
lar derivative from the etymon of co-opai. 

The Sanskrit verb asmi has no future, but M. 
Bopp conjectures with great probability, that syami, 
the adjunct by which a future tense is formed in 
attributive verbs, is in fact only the obsolete future 

d This form is considered by Hickes (Thesaur. Ling. Sept. 
torn. I.) as a future tense, but Dr. Grimm has shewn that the 
Teutonic dialects have no simple future, properly so termed. 
The potential is, however, used for a future by Ulphilas. See 
Bopp, in Annals of Oriental Litt. p. 49. 

M 3 



166 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

of the verb asmi. A fact strongly favouring this 
hypothesis is, that a tense of this verb exists in San- 
skrit, and is recognised as such, which is only used 
in forming the preterperfect tense of certain verbs. 
Asa, asit'ha, asa, is termed the third preterite or 
aorist of asmi e . It is joined with karayam from 
the verb karomi, facio, creo, and forms karayamasa, 
fecit, creavit. 

There is only one other tense of the verb asmi, 
which is the imperative. 

Sing. asani aidhi astu 

Plur. asama sta santu. 

Compare astu, with cforw, esto ; sta with eore, este, 
and santu, with sunto. The second person, aidhi, 
bears, as we shall see, a strong analogy to some of 
the modifications of the verb substantive in the 
Celtic. 

Paragraph 2. 

Verb bhavami and its cognates. 
I shall now give the principal parts of the San- 
skrit verb bhavami, which is entire, though its cog- 
nates in most other idioms are only extant in frag- 
ments. 

1. Present tense. 
Sing. bhavami bhavasi bhavati 

Plur. bhavamus bhavath'a bhavanti. 
This tense exemplifies the personal endings in their 
complete state. 

2. Potential. 
Sing. bhavaiyam bhavais bhavait 

Plur. bhavaima bhavaita bhavaiyus. 
This form corresponds with the Greek in cu/xt, ais, at, 
aifJL€V, cure, cutv. 

e Wilkins's Sanskrit Grammar, p. 187. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 107 

3. Imperative. 
Sing. bhavani bhava bhavatii 

Plur. bhavama bhavata bhavantu. 

4. First Preterite or Imperfect. 
Sing. abliavam abhavas abhavat 

Plur. abhavam abhavata abhavan. 

This tense has the abbreviated form of personal end- 
ings. 

N. The preceding forms, considered as derived from 
the present tense, display that modification in the 
root (as bhava for bhu) which marks the different 
conjugations. The remainder, which may be com- 
pared with the tenses of iot^/xi formed from oraco, 
have the root in its original state, and with respect 
to these tenses, there is only one conjugation in San- 
skrit verbs f . 

5. Second Preterite or Aorist. 
Sing. abhuvam abhus abhut. 

Personal endings in the abbreviated form. 
This corresponds with £<pvv, t(f)vs, tcpv. 

f The ten conjugations or forms of Sanskrit verbs differ from 
each other only in those tenses which are formed from the pre- 
sent. The first modifies the root and interposes a between it 
and the suffixes, as bhav-a-mi from bhu. The second subjoins 
the suffixes immediately, as asmi from as. The third reduplicates 
in the present, as dadami (St'So/xt) from da. The fourth inserts 
ya between the root and suffixes, as damyami (domo) from dam 
(tame, domitus). The fifth inserts nu after the root, and corre- 
sponds exactly with the conjugation of ^vy-vv-fxi. The sixth 
modifies the termination of the root somewhat differently from 
the first, as mriyatai (moritur) from the root mri. The seventh 
inserts n in the root, as in Latin we find jungo from the root 
jug-um. The eighth resembles the fifth, but adds only u to 
roots ending in n. The ninth adds na to the root, and is analo- 
gous to the form of (pdava, eXeei'i/co. The tenth inserts i in the 
root, and inflects like the first. These analogies have been pointed 
out fully by Dr. Murray (Hist, of European Languages). 

M 4 



168 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

6. Reduplicate Preterite. 
Sing. babhuva babhuvit'ha babhuva 

Plur. babhuvima babhuva babhuvus. 

This corresponds very closely with the Greek itityva, 

7T€(f)VaS, irtyvt, 7T€(j)Va}X€V, 7T€(f)VaT€, TT€(f)VaO-L. 

Babhuvima in its termination is allied to fuvimus from 
fuot\ 

7. First Future. 

Sing. bhavatasmi. 
The personal endings nearly as in the present tense. 

8. Precative. 

Sing. bhuyasam. 
The personal endings abbreviated. 

9. Second Future. 

Sing. bhavishyami. 

The personal endings in full. In Latin fuissem nearly 
approaches to the above form, or perhaps more 
closely to the following : 

10. Conditional. 

Sing. Abhavishyam. 
Personal endings abbreviated. 

Infinitive Mood. 
Bhavitum. 

The infinitive mood in Sanskrit bears an analogy to the 
Latin supine. 

Participles. 
Adverbial Participle, bhiitva. 
Passive, bhuta. 

Pret. Reduplicate, babhuvas. 

b As by Ennius, " Nos sumu' Romani, qui fuvimus ante Ru- 
dini." 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 169 

Present, bhavat. 

Future, bhavishyat. 

The participles are given without their termina- 
tions, which are added in declining them, and re- 
semble those of adjectives. 

The preceding forms are given by grammarians 
as those of the active voice; but this verb is inflected 
through two other voices, analogous to the middle 
and passive. Of these I shall only extract the pre- 
sent, the reduplicate preterite, and the participles. 

Middle Voice or Atmanaipadum. 
Sing. bhavai bhavasai bhavatai 

Dual, bhavavahai bhavait'hai bhavaitai 

Plur. bhavamahai bhavadhvai bhavantai. 
In this we have only to supply the first personal ending 
Sj~ — mai, which the analogy of the other persons 
seems clearly to suggest, and the whole form will 
correspond nearly with the Greek. 

Reduplicate Preterite. 

Sing, babhuvai babhuvishai babhuvai 

Dual, babhuvivahai babhuvat'hai babhuvatai 

Plur. babhuvimahai babhuvidvai babhuvirai 

Passive Present Tense. 
Sing. bhuyai bhuyasai. 

Personal endings as in the middle voice. 

Reduplicate Preterite. 
Same as in the middle Voice. 
Participles present in the middle voice : 
Bhavamanah bhavamana bhavamanam. 
Reduplicate Preterite : Babhuvanah, a, am. 
Future : bhavishyamanah. 
Passive Present : bhuyamanah, a, am. 
The terminations would be represented correctly 



170 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

thus; fxdvo$, pava, [xavovi and it is needless to remind 
the reader of the near correspondence of these forms 
with the Greek. 



SECTION II. 

Analysis of the Celtic Verb Substantive. 

The verb substantive in Welsh grammars appears 
to a learner as if made up of the fragments of two 
or three defective roots, like the verbs substantive 
of other European languages. But in reality there 
is in the Welsh a verbal root, which is cognate with 
the Sanskrit bhu and the Persian buden, and which 
is like the former, perfect, or very nearly so, having 
as many extant forms as the Welsh verbs generally 
possess. This verb is in the infinitive mood bod, 
and bod may perhaps be regarded as the root, 
although Dr. Davies gives that term to the third 
person singular of the preterite, which is bu, fuit. 
The third person of the future is, however, often 
the root of Welsh verbs, and this in the verb sub- 
stantive is B ydh, erit. Bydh, if not the root, is the 
basis on which most of the modifications of this verb 
are formed. 

Regular verbs have in Welsh, besides the infini- 
tive and imperative moods, five distinct tenses or 
forms : these are two futures, one of which is indi- 
cative and the other conditional or subjunctive, a 
preterimperfect, preterperfect, and preterpluperfect 
tense. All these forms are extant in the verb bod. 
They are as follows. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 171 

Paragraph I. 
1. Future Indicative. 
Sing. bydhav bydhi bydh. 

Plur. bydhwn bydhwch bydhant. 

N. It must be observed that the Welsh y in the penultima is 
a short u. The ending av in Welsh stands for am in Erse, and 
the t' is equivalent to mh, or is a secondary form of m. 

N. It may be worth while, before we proceed further, to 
compare with this the future tense of the verb sub- 
stantive in the Russian, as a specimen of resemblance 
in one of the eastern branches of the European lan- 
guages. 

Sing. budu budet' budut' 

Plur. budem' budet e budut'. 

Compare also the potential form of the verb 
buden, to be, in Persian : 

Sing. budemi budi budi 

Plur. budimi budidi budendi. 

2. Future Potential, Conditional or Subjunctive. 

Sing. bydhwyv bydhych bydho 

Plur. bydhom bydhoch bydhout. 

This form is varied as follows : 

Sing. bythwyv bythych bytho, &c. 

and contractedly thus : 

Sing. bwyv bych bo 

Plur. bom boch bout. 

N. Compare with the preceding the indefinite or sub- 
junctive form in the Persian, which is also termed a 
future. 

Sing. buvem buvi buved 

Plur. buvim buvid buvend. 



172 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

3. Preterimperfect. 
Sing. bydhwn bydhit bydhai 

Plur. bydhem bydhech bydheut. 

This likewise is contracted by dropping the dh, as 
bawn for bydhwn. 

N. This form is considered by Dr. Davies as appro- 
priated to the subjunctive mood, oedhwn which is 
derived from another root being used in the indica- 
tive. In regular verbs, in general, this tense belongs 
rather to the subjunctive than the indicative. 
N. Compare with the preceding the preterite of the 
verb substantive in Persian. 

Sing. budem budi bud 

Plur. budim budit bud end. 

4. Preterperfect tense. 
Sing. 1. bum, poetice buum and buym. Lat. fui 
(olim fuim?) 

2. buost fuisti. 

3. bu fuit. 
Plur. 1. buom fuimus. 

2. buoch fuistis. 

3. buont and buant fuerunt. 

N. The relation of these inflections to the Latin is 

obvious. 
In Greek and in Sanskrit the forms most allied to this 
preterite are the aorists, as, 

Sing. abhuvam abhus abhut 

€(pvv €(pvg e<pv, 

Plur. abhuma abhuta abhuvan, 

ecf>vfA€v €<f>vT€ Itpvaav. 

5. Preterpluperfect Tense. 
The preterpluperfect tense bears also a near re- 
semblance to the corresponding form in Latin, and 
this is still more striking if we restore the s in the 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



173 



place of r, where we have reason to believe that it 
originally stood. 

Latin. Welsh. Latin. Welsh. 

fuesam bhnaswn fuesamus bhuesym 

fnesas bhnasit fuesatis bhuesych 

fnesat blmasai fuesant bhuesynt. 

Imperative Mood. 

Sing. 2. bydh, be thou. 3. bydhed, boed, bid, 
Plur. bydhwn. bydhwch. bydhant. 

Infinitive Mood, 
bod. 
Persian, buden ; Russian, buit'. 

The preceding are all the forms properly belong- 
ing to the verb bod in the active voice, and, as be- 
fore observed, they are as many as belong to any 
regular verb in Welsh. 

Note, Before we proceed further, it will be worth while to 
compare the present tense of the verb substantive in the 
Erse dialect of the Celtic, with a corresponding form in the 
Sclavonic language. The Erse has a present tense properly 
so called, although it is wanting in Welsh. 

The infinitive mood and root of this verb in Erse 
is beith, to be. The following is the negative form 
of the present tense. 

1. In the Erse, properly so termed, or Irish Celtic. 

Sing. Plural. 

1. ni fhuilhim ni fhuilmid 

2. ni fhuilhir ni fhuilthidh 

3. ni fhuilh ni fhuilidh b 

b Gaelic (i. e. Irish) Grammar by E. O'C , printed by J. 

Barlow, Dublin, 1808. 



174 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

2. In the Gaelic of Scotland. 
Sing. Plural. 

1. ni bheil mi ni bheil sinn 

2. ni bheil thu ni bheil sibh 

3. ni bheil e ni bheil iad c 

Conditional form of the verb buit', to be, in Russian. 

Sing. Plural. 

1. ya bui buile mu bui buili 

2. til bui buile vu bui buili 

3. one bui buile oni bui buili d 

Passive Voice. 
The Celtic grammarians, like the Sanskrit, dis- 
tinguish passive forms of the verb substantive. The 
passive voice, however, in the Celtic, has only the 
third person singular throughout the moods and 
tenses. 

1. Future Indicative, 
bydhir. 

2. Future Subjunctive. 

bydher, byther, and contractedly, baer. 

Note. With byther or bydhir the Latin futurus is evi- 
dently cognate. 

3. Preterimperfect. 
bydhid, contracted beid. 

Note. Compare the Sanskrit, bhuyatai. 

c Grammar prefixed to the Gaelic Dictionary published by 
order of the Highland Society. 

d Etemens de la Langue Russe, Petersbourg. 1768. p. 133. 
Praktische Grammatik der Russischen sprache, von D. Johann 
Severin Vater. Leipzig. 18 14. Tab. 7. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 175 

4. Preterperfect. 
buwyd. 

Note. Compare the Sanskrit bhutwa. 

5. Preterperfect. 
buasid and buesid. 

Note. Compare in Latin fuisset or rather fuesit, the old 
form of fuerit. 

Paragraph 2. 

Of defective verbs used as verbs substantive in the 
Celtic dialects. 

Besides the verb bod, which we have compared 
with its cognates, there are other defective verbs in 
the Celtic dialects used as parts of the verb substan- 
tive. In the Welsh it has been remarked that re- 
gular verbs want a present tense properly so termed. 
In fact, the Welsh grammarians give the denomina- 
tion of a future to a particular form of the verb, 
which is used with both a future and present signi- 
fication ; and it is perhaps somewhat doubtful to 
which tense it properly belongs. That it is capable 
of expressing a present signification, without any 
metaphor or reference to the future, is fully evident 
from the instances adduced by the Welsh gramma- 
rian Dr. Davies, who observes, that in the Creed, 
the expression " Credo in Deum Patrem" is ren- 
dered by " Credav yn Nuw Dad," and that in con- 
versation " Mi a welav" means " I see," and " Beth 
" medhi di," " what sayest thou ?" 

The following forms are considered as belonging 
to the present tense. 

1. Sydh, and by apocope sy; est, is. This is used 
indefinitely in all numbers and persons. 



176 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 



>• only the third person extant. 



2. Mae, est 
Maent, sunt, 

3. Oes, est. This has no inflections, and is used 

only as a third person singular. 

4. Yw, pronounced yu ; est. This is also used in 

the same way as sydh, and it is likewise in- 
flected, as follows : 

Singular. 

1. wyv, perhaps originally ywyv. 

2. wyt or wyd. 

3. yw. 

Plural. 

1. ym 2. ych 3. ynt. 

There is another form of yw, with a sort of re- 
duplication, thus : 

Sing. 1. yd wyv 2. yd wyt 3. ydyw. 
Plur. 1. ydym 2. ydych 3. ydynt. 

There is a poetical form yttwyv, yttwyt, &c. 

Passive Form. 

Welsh grammarians distinguish likewise a passive 
form of this verb. It is as follows : 

In the poets, and in the dialects of South Wales 
and Powys, ys. 

The poets have also ydis ; it is commonly ydys. 

Note. It must be observed that the Welsh ys is pro- 
nounced like us in English, and exactly as the root ^tt — 
as, in Sanskrit. 

The same root slightly modified, viz. is or isi, is 
extant in the Erse and Scottish dialects of the 
Celtic e ; as 

e Lhuyd's English-Irish Dictionary. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 177 

Sing, is mi, or is misi, I am, 

is tu, tliou art. 

is e, he is. 

Plur. 1. is simi. 2. is sibh. 3.isiad f . 
Preterimperfect tense, in Welsh. 

1. Active or variable form. 
Sing. 1. oedhwn. 2. oedhit or 3. oedli. 

oedhyt. 

Plnr. 1. oedhym or 2. oedhych or 3. oedhynt or 
oedhem. oedhech. oedhent. 

2. Passive or invariable form, 
oedhid. 

Cognates. 
The form ys, which is perhaps the real etymon, 
is precisely the root in Sanskrit and in the Euro- 
pean languages, which, adding the pronominal suf- 
fix always wanting in Welsh in the third person 
singular, as well as in the passive form, make of the 
same word, eo-n, est, ist. 

Note. It is remarkable that the verb substantive has 
forms appropriated to the present tense, while all other 
Welsh verbs are destitute of them. This circumstance may 
be accounted for. There being two distinct verbs substan- 
tive, and each having that form which is used, as we have 
seen, in the generality of verbs, sometimes with a future 
and sometimes with a present signification, practice, founded 
on convenience, at length appropriated the use of onj of 
them to the future, and the other to the present tense. 
Hence bydh came to express " it zvill be" and sydh, ys, and 
oes, " it is" while, in respect to attributive verbs, which 
have a single form, the ambiguity still remains. 

f Shaw's Analysis of the Gaelic Language. 
N 



178 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

SECTION III. 

Inflection of a regular verb in Welsh through its moods and 

tenses. 

The root or origin of a verb in Welsh is, as the 
learned Dr. Davies remarked, for the most part a 
noun, as dysc, doctrina ; dyscais, docui ; car, amicus; 
carav, amo vel amabo. This substantive, adds the 
same writer, is generally identical with the third 
person singular of the future indicative, (as in He- 
brew the third of the preterite is the root,) or with 
the second of the imperative, which forms are for 
the most part the same. 

In some verbs, however, the third person of the 
preterite is the root, as aeth, daeth. 

Indicative Mood, Present Tense. 
There is, according to the Welsh grammarians, 
no present tense in attributive verbs, and this tense 
is supplied by a circumlocution, as 

wyv yn caru, literally, el[u kv t» <f>i\e7v, I am loving. 

Note. All the other tenses may be formed by a similar 
circumlocution. 

Preterimperfect Tense. 
Sing. 1. carwn 2. carit 3. carai 

Plur. 1. carem 2. carech 3. carent. 

A tense seldom used in the indicative. 

Preterperfect Tense. 
Sing. 1. cerais, i.e.kerais 2. ceraist 3. carodh 
Plur. 1. carasom 2. carasoch 3. carasant 8 . 

a See Dr. Davies's Grammar, entitled, Antiquse Linguae Britan- 
nicee Rudimenta, from which, and from the grammar prefixed to 
Richards's Dictionary, the following as well as the preceding 
conjugations of Welsh verbs are extracted. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 



179 



The principle on which this and the following 
tense are formed seems to be the insertion of the 
syllable as or ais between the root and the personal 
endings, and a change of the radical vowel in a mode 
analogous to the Sanskrit form guna. Both these 
changes have been traced in the inflections of verbs 
in the Sanskrit and European languages. And the 
modification of the vowel by guna is, in Sanskrit, as 
in Welsh, confined to particular persons in the 
tense. 

Preterpluperfect Tense. 
Sing. 1. caraswn 2. carasit 3. carasai 
Plur. 1. carasem 2. carasech 3. carasent. 

Future Tense. 
Sing. 1. carav 2, ceri 3. car 

Plur. 1. carwn 2. cerwch 3. car ant. 

Imperative Mood. 

Sing. 1. 2. car 3. cared 

Plur. 2. carwn 2. cerwch 3. car ant. 

Potential, Optative, and Subjunctive Mood. 

Present Tense wanting. 

Preterimperfect Tense. 

Sing. 1. carwn 2. cerit 3. carai 

Plur. 1. carem 2, carech 3. carent. 

Poetic Form. 
Plur. 1. cerym 2. cerych 3. cerynt. 

Preterperfect and Preterpluperfect. 



Sing. 


1. caraswn 


2. carasit 


3. carasai 


Plur. 


1. carasem 


2. carasech 


3. carasent 




Or, 


Poetic Form. 




Plur. 


1. caresym 


2. caresych 

N 2 


3. caresynt 



180 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

Future Tense. 
Sing. 1. carwyv 2. cerych 3. caro 

Plur. 1. carom 2. carech 3. caront. 

Infinitive Mood, 
caru, amare. 

This one form, taking various prefixes, as yn caru, 
in amando, serves the purpose of Infinitive, Gerunds, 
and Supines. 

Passive Voice. 
The Welsh language has a proper passive voice b ; 
but the tenses have no variety of endings to distin- 
guish the persons. 

Indicative Mood, Present Tense. 
Formed by a circumlocution, the infinitive used 
as a gerund, being constructed with the passive form 
of the verb substantive ; as 

f vy ngharu, amor, 
yr ydys yn-< dy garu, amaris. 
lei garu, amatur. 

Note. Literally elfu kv ra> fxov c/nA.eiz>, &c. 



The plural is similarly formed ; but the future is 
likewise used as a present tense. 

b In this as well as in the number of tenses in the active 
voice, the Celtic language is richer than the Teutonic. In the 
latter, according to Dr. Grimm, the Moeso-Gothic is the only 
dialect that preserves any remains of a passive voice ; and in 
that only the present tense indicative and subjunctive is ex- 
tant. The following words are examples : galeikoda, it is liken- 
ed ; galeikozau, thou mayest be compared ; haitanda, we are 
called -, halyaindau, they may be hidden. Grimm's D. Gram. p. 
855. There are likewise some indications of a middle voice in 
the Gothic version. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 181 

Preterimperfect Tense. 
Cerid vi, ti, ev, ni, chwi, hwynt. 

Preterperfect Tense. 
Carwyd vi, ti, &c. Amatus, sum, es, est, &e. 

Preterpluperfect Tense. 
Carasid, or caresid, vi, ti, &c. 

Future Tense. 
Sing. Cerer vi, ti, ev. 
Plur. Cerir ni, chwi, hwynt. 

Imperative Mood, 
Sing, and Plur. Carer, vi, di, ev, ni, chwi, hwynt. 

Potential Mood, Present Tense. 
Sing, and Plur. Cerir vi, di, &c. 

Preterimperfect Tense. 
Sing, and Plur. Cerid vi, di, &c. 

Preterpluperfect Tense. 
Sing, and Plur. Caresid vi, di, &c. 

Future Tense. 
Sing, and Plur. Carer vi, di, &c. 

Participles. 
ri dhyn, amans homini. 
Caredig < gan dhyn, amatus ab hornine. 

tdyn, amatus vel dilectus hominis. 

Caradwy, amandus. 

Note. This form is nearly analogous to the Sanskrit ad- 
verbial participle bhu-twa. 

Such are the inflections of passive verbs in the 
Welsh language. They contain but a few instances 

N 3 



182 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

of interpolated syllables, and those have been already- 
remarked. The greater part of these inflections con- 
sists, excluding the personal endings or affixes, of 
slight variations in the final syllables, and chiefly in 
the vowels, very analogous to the changes which 
distinguish the moods and tenses of the passive voice 
of Latin verbs, particularly in the third conjuga- 
tion. 



SECTION IV. 

Conjugation of a regular Verb in Erse. 

Present Tense, Indicative Mood. 
Verb, Cesaim or kesaim, I torment. 

Note. The root of the verb is said to be the first person 
of the present tense, the last syllable being cut off. 



Sing. 1. Cesaim. 2. cesair. 3. cesaidh. 

Plur. 1. Cesamaid or) 



2. Cesthai. 3. cesaid. 
cesam 



Preterite. 

Sing. 1. Do chesas. 2. chesas. 3. ches. 

Plur. 1. Do chesamar^ , fchesadar 

I 2. chesa- 1 

or V- „ S.< or 

do chessam ) tchessad. 



Note. It may be perceived that the form of the present 
cesaim nearly corresponds with that which the Welsh gram- 
marians term a future tense terminating in av, and that the 
preterite in as agrees with the Welsh preterite in ais. The 
Erse language has adopted a peculiar form for a future 
tense, made by inserting a syllable fa between the root and 
the personal endings. This insertion, however, is not used 
in all verbs. 



rn 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 183 

Future Tense. 

Sing. 1. Cesfad. 2. cesfair. 3. cesfaidh. 

Plur. 1. Cesfamaid or ) ■ 

c h 2. cesiaidhe. 3. cesfaid. 

cesfam. ) 

Imperative. 

Sing. 1. 2. ces. 3. cesadh. 

Plur. 1. Cesam. 2. cesaidhe 3. cesaid or 

cesadis. 
Potential Mood. 

Preterimperfect Tense. 
Sing. 1. Do chesfainn. 2. chesfa. 3. chesfadn. 
Plur. 1. Do chesfamair. 2. chesfaidhe. 3. chesfaidis. 

Infinitive Mood. 
Cesadh or do chesadh, to torment. 

Note. The different tenses have another form without the 
personal endings, in which case the personal pronouns are 
immediately subjoined. 

Passive Voice. 

Indicative mood, Present Tense. 
Cestar me, thu, e, inn, ibh, iad. 

Note. As in Welsh, only one form in the passive for all 
the pronouns. 

Preterite. 
Do chesadh me, thu, &c. 

Future. 
Cesfaidher me, thu, &c. or cesfar me 

Imperative. 
Cestar me, thu, &c. 

Potential, Preterimperfect, 
Do chesfaidhe me, thu, &c. 

N 4 



184 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

Infinitive. 
Do bheit cesta, to be tormented. 

Participle. 
Cesta, tormented. 

For the varieties and irregularities of verbs in 
the Erse, as well as of the Welsh, I must refer to 
the grammars of those languages. 



SECTION V. 

Concluding observations on the Celtic verbs, with general re- 
marks on the grammatical peculiarities of the Celtic lan- 
guages. 

The observations made in the two last chapters 
allow us to conclude that the inflection of verbs in 
the Celtic dialects, excluding for the present the con- 
sideration of suffixes, or the systems of personal end- 
ings, which were previously compared, is founded 
on principles similar to those which prevail in the 
Sanskrit and in several European languages. The 
Celtic verbs do not display any traces of the preter- 
ite by reduplication, which is so remarkable a fea- 
ture in the eastern branches of the Indo-European 
stock of languages, and which is also found in the 
Latin and Teutonic ; but they change the middle 
vowels in a mode analogous to that which these 
four languages possess, under the form termed guna 
by Sanskrit grammarians, and they interpolate simi- 
lar consonants or syllables for the purpose of distin- 
guishing moods and tenses, the varying terminations, 
particularly in the passive voice, being closely ana- 
logous to those of the other old European idioms, 
and especially to the Latin. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 185 

When we connect the consideration of these ana- 
logies with the results formerly obtained on compar- 
ing the systems of personal endings or suffixes, it 
will perhaps not be going too far to say, that the 
whole structure of inflections in the Celtic dialects is 
founded on principles similar to those which are the 
groundwork of verbal conjugations in the other lan- 
guages compared with them. 

The principal affections which words undergo in 
the construction of sentences in the Celtic languages, 
may be referred to two heads ; first, interchanges 
between cognate letters on a principle which we 
have compared with that of sandhi ; and secondly, 
the inflections of verbs. In these consists a great 
part likewise of the peculiarity of the Sanskrit lan- 
guage a . In both respects there is a remarkable 
congruity between the Celtic and the Sanskrit. 
There is a third series of variations in words com- 
mon to the Sanskrit and several European idioms, 
in which the Celtic dialects are more defective than 
some other ancient languages of Europe and of the 
East, I mean the declensions of nouns. 

Welsh nouns make their plural number nearly on 
the same principle as several of the European lan- 
guages. They add terminations in i, au, ion, &c. 
and they vary the interior vowels of words. 

Welsh nouns have no cases properly so called, but 
the want of them is supplied by prepositions which 
have not coalesced with the words governed by them, 
as they appear in other languages to have done in 
such a manner as to give origin to cases b . 

a The different forms of samasa and sandhi occupy a consi- 
derable space in the Sanskrit grammars of Yadaraja and Vopa- 
daiva. 

b Such at least, according to the opinion defended by Bopp, 



186 EASTERN ORIGIN OF 

In the Erse dialect nouns have a very peculiar 
mode of declension. The following may serve as an 
example : 

An bard, a poet. 



Sing. 


Nom. 


an bard, 


PJur. 


Norn. 


na baird, 




Gen. 


an bhaird, 




Gen. 


na mbhard, 




Dat. 


cTn mbard, 




Dat. 


o na bardaibh 




Ace. 


an bard, 




Ace. 


na barda, 




Voc. 


a bhaird. 




Voc. 


a bharda. 



It is worth while to notice particularly the dative 
plural, which generally terminates in aibh, though 
this perhaps admits of a variety, for it is given by 
Lluyd in uibh. The terminations in uibh or aibh 
are plainly related to the old Latin dative, in obus 
and abus, which was probably the genuine and ori- 
ginal form of this case in Latin. The Sanskrit 
datives plural end in abhyus or abhyah, or at least in 
bhyus after a vowel, as TJST^HT — raj abhyus ; 
Latin, regibus ; Erse, righaibh or rioghaibh. 



SECTION VI. 

General Inference. 

I have thus laid before my readers the most ob- 
vious and striking analogies between the Celtic dia- 

is the origin of Sanskrit cases, and therefore also of Greek and 
Latin, which so nearly resemble them. Professor J. Grimm, 
however, who has examined, with a view to this question, the 
cases of the Mceso-Gothic and other Teutonic dialects, seems in- 
clined to a different opinion, as far as those languages are con- 
cerned. He concludes his inquiry into this subject (Bedeutung 
der casusflexion) with the remark — Die Casuszeichen bleiben 
mir ein geheimnisvolles element das ich lieber jedem worte 
zuerkennen will, als es von einem auf alle ubrigen leiten. Th. I. 
P. 835. 



THE CELTIC NATIONS. 187 

lects, and the languages which are more generally al- 
lowed to be of cognate origin with the Sanskrit, Greek, 
and Latin. On the facts submitted to them, they will 
form their own conclusion. Probably few persons 
will hesitate in adopting the opinion, that the marks 
of connexion are too decided and extensive to be re- 
ferred to accident or casual intercourse, that they 
are too deeply interwoven with the intimate structure 
of the languages compared, to be explained on any 
other principle than that which has been admitted 
by so many writers in respect to the other great 
families of languages belonging to the ancient popu- 
lation of Europe, and that the Celtic people them- 
selves are therefore of eastern origin, a kindred tribe 
with the nations who settled on the banks of the 
Indus, and on the shores of the Mediterranean and 
of the Baltic. It is probable that several tribes 
emigrated from their original seat in different stages 
of advancement in respect to civilization and lan- 
guage, and we accordingly find their idioms in very 
different degrees of refinement; but an accurate ex- 
amination and analysis of the intimate structure 
and component materials of these languages, is still 
capable of affording ample proofs of a common 
origin. 

My present inquiry has been professedly confined 
to language ; and I must refer to my former work for 
the confirmations which the inferences now deduced 
may obtain from other sources. 



NOTE ON THE SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 



AT the conclusion of a work designed to illustrate the 
mutual affinity of those idioms which are termed collec- 
tively Indo-European, it will not be improper to add a few 
remarks on the relation between the latter and two other 
families of languages, which have co-existed with them 
from the earliest periods of history. 

One of these is the class of idioms termed by German 
philological writers Semitic languages. This designation 
was, I believe, first suggested by Eichhorn, who has re- 
marked that the three principal branches into which the 
idioms belonging to this class divide themselves, viz. the 
Hebrew or the dialect of Palestine and Phoenice, the Arabic, 
and the Aramaean or northern Semitic spread over Syria 
and Mesopotamia, are as nearly related to each other as the 
Ionic, iEolic, and Doric dialects of Greek a . The term 
Semitic has been thought by some to be objectionable, on 
the ground that several of the nations who spoke the 
languages so denominated, in common with the descend- 
ants of Shem, were of Hamite origin, as the Phoenicians or 
Canaanites. It has, however, got into general use, and 
must therefore be retained. Schlozer, the learned editor of 
Nestor's annals, has proposed on similar grounds to name 
the Indo-European dialects Japetic languages, most of 
the nations by whom they are spoken having descended, as 
it is generally believed, from Japhet. We might perhaps, 
with less hesitation, apply the term Hamite to the third 
family of languages, to which I have alluded. I refer prin- 
cipally to the dialects of the old Egyptian speech, the 
Coptic, Sahidic, and Bashmuric, including conjecturally, 

a Einleitung in das Alte Testament, von Joh. G. Eichhorn. B. I. p. 49. 
Dritt. Ausg. 

b A. L. Schlozer, von den Ohaldaeern, Repertorinm fur biblische und mor- 
genlamdische literatur. th. 11. 



190 NOTE ON THE 

until the mutual relations of these languages shall have 
been more fully investigated, several idioms spoken by 
races of Africa, in whose history marks are to be found of 
connection with the ancient subjects of the Pharaohs. 
One of these is the dialect of the Nouba, Bar&bra or Ber- 
berins of the Upper Nile, a race who strikingly resemble 
the ancient Egyptians in their physical characters, as we 
know by comparing the present Berberins with the paint- 
ings and mummies preserved in the Egyptian catacombs c . 
They are probably the offspring of the ancient Ethiopians 
of Meroe, who in a later age were the subjects of queen 
Candace. Another race, much more extensively spread in 
Africa, are the descendants of the Libyans. The Showiah, 
spoken by the Kabyles among the Tunisian mountains, 
and the Amazigh of the Berbers and the Shilha of mount 
Atlas, are dialects of their language, which has been traced 
from the Oasis of Siwah to the Atlantic ocean, and which 
seems also to have been the idiom of the Guanches in the 
Canary islands, whose curiously desiccated mummies bear, 
as Blumenbach has shewn, much resemblance to those 
of the Egyptians, and indicate a very ancient connection 
among the tribes of northern Africa in arts and customs d . 

It seems to be the prevalent opinion among philological 
writers of the present time, that the three classes of lan- 
guages above referred to, namely, the Indo-European, the 
Semitic, and the Egyptian dialects, are entirely uncon- 
nected with each other, and betray no traces even of the 
most remote affinity. A late writer, whom I have before 
cited, seems to hold this opinion in a very decided manner 
in reference to the Semitic and Indo-European idioms. 

" It has been asserted," says Col. Vans Kennedy, " that 
" the Greek contains more Arabic words than is generally 
" supposed ; but until these words are produced, and their 
" identity established, I must doubt the correctness of this 
" assertion ; for I have never been able to discover any such 
" identical terms. " He concludes, that " the portion of 

c Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, vol. i. 
d Blumenbach's Decades Craniorum. 



SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 191 

u Asia which comprises Arabia and Syria was peopled, or 
" at least inhabited from time immemorial, by a distinct 
" race of men, who spoke a language peculiar to them- 
" selves ; and that this language, with its cognate dialects, 
" has been at all times confined to these countries, and 
" that it never has extended its influence beyond their 
" limits, except to a small part of Africa." 

It must be allowed, that the Semitic dialects constitute a 
very distinct department of languages, which can by no 
means be associated or brought into the same class with the 
Indo-European idioms \ yet it is by far too much to affirm 
that there are no traces of connection between the two 
classes. In the preceding remarks upon the Indo-European 
languages, some futures have been pointed out which dis- 
play a remarkable analogy to the well-known characters of 
the Hebrew and its cognate dialects ; I shall only instance 
the system of pronominal suffixes. This is one point in 
which the Celtic, at the same time that it appears to be 
the least artificial and grammatically cultivated of the 
Indo-European languages, forms an intermediate link be- 
tween them and the Semitic, or perhaps indicates a state 
of transition from the characters of one of these classes of 
languages to those of the other. 

In my work on the Physical History of Mankind, I ven- 
tured to remark, that a very considerable number of the 
vocables belonging to the Semitic dialects may be recog- 
nised in some of the Indo-European languages. It would 
be foreign to the object of the present work to enter at 
large into a proof of this opinion ; but I shall here adduce a 
few instances of undoubtedly cognate words, which will 
be sufficient to render it probable that a much larger 
number may be discovered by an extensive and accurate 
research. 

Among the first ten numerals there are a few terms 
which appear to be cognate. 

Semitic Dialects. Indo-European Languages. 

i. echad, Heb. aika, Sansk. 

yik or eek, Pers. 



li): 



NOTi; OX THtt 



Semitic Dialects. Indo-European Languages 

3. Ordinal in Chald. 3. Ordinal in Sanskrit. 

^■TPTTI — tlithay, (Dan. ii. 39.) tritaya. 

6. shesh, Heb. shash, Sansk. 

7. shevang, Chald. seven, sibun, &c. 

The following are some verbal roots and nouns which 
are evidently of the same origin. Among them are verbs 
which nearly resemble the two verbs substantive already 
traced in the Indo-European language. 

r^2L — bith from J"fi3, — buth, beith, Erse. 



Chald. to tarry, dwell, (Dan. vi. 
18.) often used in the Targum 
for YO' I n A ra °i c this word is 
C>Ij — bat, or *^\aj — beit, to 
tarry, be situated e . 

But the verb in Hebrew 
which closely corresponds with 
the Indo-European verb sub- 
stantive, and in fact identical 
with it, is tiJ* — yesh, he is ; in 

Arab, (j*^! — is f . 



khol, (whole, all) 

hor, horim, hori, (mountain) 
laish, (lion) 
leom, (people) 
luach, (a stone table) 

loang, (throat, swallow) 
tor, tori, (Chald.) 
keran, (Chald.) 
giivra, (Chald.) 



bydh, bod, W. 
buden, Pers. 
bhu, Sansk. 
be, beon, Teut. 

It can hardly be doubted 
that ffi is a real cognate of the 
Indo-European verb. See p. 
83. above. 
is, Erse. 

ys, Welsh, 
as, Sanskrit. 
&c. &c. 
oXos. 
h61h, Welsh. 

opos, opoi. 

Xecov. 

Xeo)?. 

lhech, (a flat stone.) 

\10OS. 

lung, lingua. 
ravpos, ravpoi. 
cornu, Kepas. 
gwr, vir. 



e Buxtorf. Lex. Heb. p. 69. Michaelis Supplem. in Lex. Heb. voce J^^lS." 
f Gesenius's Lexicon, Cambridge edition. See Genes, xxviii. 16. Deuteron. 
xxix. 17, &c. p. 316. 



SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 



193 



} 



Semitic Dialects. 

terez, in Chald. WW— wrgha 
C% being, however, often mu- 
table into d, which would make 
aerda.) 
^y — gnabi (clouds) 

*^V-» pronounced Nep in Ori- 

gen's Hexapla, Hos. ii. I. (a 

youth.) 

mV2 — naaerah, puella. 

ganaz 

chetoneth 

sepel (Jud. v. 25.) (a cup) 

yayin 

Here we find *> standing for 
the digamma or vau. An in- 
sertion of the vau will convert 
many Hebrew into Indo-Euro- 
pean words, as 

2. yadang (know,) in Pih. yid- 1 
dang. j 

3. halak 

4. rong (evil) 

5. chiva (an animal) chavah, \ 
life. J 

6. ragang 

kum, (arise, come) 

laat, (to hide, secret) 

arar, aru, ar, (curse) 

ad 

lakak, also lakhak and likhak 

TIM— ud 

thiggenu (Gen. iii. 5.) 

tardemah ex radam 

moth 

moth and 1 

meth J 

olem, (age) 



Indo-European Languages. 
erda. 
erth. 

dhara, daiar. 
terra. 

nabhah, Sansk. 
nubes. 

narah, Sansk. 
avi]p. 

narl, Sansk. 

ydvos. 

simpulum . 



vidan, eldciv. 

o?Sa, vaida. 

walk. 

wrong. 

vivo, viva, 

jiva, Sansk. 

pr)ywpi, frango, i. e. frago. 

komm, come. 

lateo, Xrj6e. 

apa, apdopai. 

ad, at. 

liha, Sansk. \eLxa>, lick. 

udus, ud, Sansk. vbeop, &c. 

diyydvere, (Gen. Hi. 5.) 

traum, dream, 
motus. 

meath JErse, to die. 
meatham -> 

olim, Lat. 

o 



194 NOTE ON THE SEMITIC LANGUAGES., L A r 

Semitic Dialects. Indo-European Lan^naires. 

charats, (cleave, wound slightly, ") x a P"°' (r(B - 

Gesenius) -* scratch. 

H^^— laghah, (to babble) 

t^v — laghaz, (speak barba- 
rously) 

^7 — laghag, (laugh and speak ? 

unintelligibly) 

In all these we recognise 

one element. 



The same element in XaK<?a>, 
laugh, liicheln, loquor ? 



PRONOUNS. 

atta, pron. (thou) tu. 

ta, suffix. ta, t'ha, suffix in Sanskrit. 

hi, (she) hi, si. 

hu, (he) evo. 

anu, suffix nu. ni, nos, nau. 

No sufficient comparison of the Egyptian and other 
Northern African dialects with each other and with the 
Semitic languages has been made to allow of any ge- 
neral statement as to their relations. I may however ob- 
serve, that those who have denied that any affinity can here 
be traced appear rather to have presumed the fact than to 
have proved it. The affinity of some striking words 
among the personal pronouns in the Egyptian and Hebrew 
languages is such as to excite a strong suspicion that more 
extensive resemblances exist, though it does not appear 
probable that the idioms of Northern Africa are even so 
nearly related to the Semitic, as the latter are to the Indo- 
European languages. 



ERRATA. 

P. 10. discovered read dissevered 
P. 7^. display read displays. 
P. 93. are read is. 
they have read it has. 



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